West Snowfield, center of the forest region
Snowfield's winds started getting stronger thanks to the unprecedentedly gigantic hurricane approaching.
However, the sun rising from the east illuminated the forest, unaffected by the incoming storms.
The clouds clustered around the center of the hurricane to an abnormal degree. No clouds defied the intense winds to occupy the skies above the forest.
In the center of this forest blanketed by warm sunlight and intense breezes, a voice filled with a divine aura reverbed.
"Haruri. I'm naming you this place's head priestess. Good luck!"
"...?"
(What did she just say?)
Haruri stood still atop the smoothly polished stone floorboards, too confused to say anything back.
She could hear the distant winds, but neither the wind nor the sunlight would reach her.
She was surrounded by porcelain-white walls with gold ornaments. Furthermore, the altar, chairs, and some other pieces of furniture were made with lavish amounts of an azure rock she presumes to be lapis-lazuli. At first glance, the room resembled an art museum exhibit hall.
But Haruri knew for a fact this was the middle of a forest.
Two days prior, this place was filled with deeply rooted trees.
Several orders from Ishtar to Haruri's Berserker Servant later, this place was fully built in a mere day and a half.
She didn't understand why this construction speed was necessary, but before she could ask the many questions in her head, Ishtar called her.
A person would need to be impressively accustomed to unreasonable absurdity to be in her shoes without feeling confused.
Ishtar's heart was running a marathon and Haruri's heart couldn't keep up with the goddess vestige's pace.
"Looks like I got you speechless! Well, I can understand feeling overjoyed by the honor of being named head priestess, but watch out not to grow arrogant like that one idiot Huwawa took out before, ok?"
"L-Listen! I'm not fit for a role this majo..."
"You're allowed to be modest once. If you do it a second time, I'll assume you're
doubting my judgment. Be careful about that.", Ishtar flatly stated with an unwavering smile.
Haruri's mouth froze when she heard that.
Because she understood Ishtar meant her statement as a cold fact, not as a threat.
(What Ishtar really meant to say with those words was "Did you know that you would die if I ripped your head off and used it as a ball?".)
Regardless, the goddess was always uninhibited and emotionally driven.
Haruri accepted that a god's arrogance and austerity were inseparable from their ability to be their natural selves.
Haruri was trembling and speechless. Seeing that, Ishtar reacted with an awkward smile.
"Listen, I know it may look like I wasn't thinking, but I named you head priestess for a good reason, ok?"
"Must have been a truly deep reason..."
"It was! Uruk had a long history of faith in me back in the day, and one of the head priestesses in that history was a cut above the rest. And believe it or not,
her name was kinda similar to yours. I'll never get why she put so much work into supporting that obstinate goldie's stupid government, but otherwise, she was a good and pious girl! So I knew you were the one because your name rhymes with hers... Am I right?"
She heard the "Am I right?" at the end overlapped with an illusory "Don't you dare let me down, ok?".
But in reality, the idea of Haruri not living up to Ishtar's expectations never even crossed the goddess' mind.
She thought "My instincts couldn't possibly choose the wrong person" and nothing else.
And for that reason, the moment she lets Ishtar down, she'll be Ishtar's enemy.
(But... still...)
Several memories hit the Grail War participant's mind.
She almost lost her life when she confronted Bazdilot Cordelion and when she summoned Berserker. What stuck out with her the most from these moments was not the color of her blood or the flames consuming the meat factory. It was the shining image of Ishtar remaining true to her convictions no matter the circumstances.
(At this point, I should also be ready to put everything on the line. Even if that makes me an enemy of humanity, I will... My life is a small price to pay... to flip this world upside-down.)
Perplexed as she was, Haruri still replied to the Divine Spirit that saved her life with words voicing her complex mix of gratitude and fear.
"I humbly accept this honor... It's thanks to Ishtar that my life was saved. You can do to me anything you wish."
"Huh? For real?"
"What?"
"Anything I want?
Are you sure about that?"
Ishtar's unexpected response only furthered Haruri's confusion.
Seeing that, Ishtar slightly dropped the tone of her voice.
"I warned you once before, remember?"
"!"
"I told you I don't mind you sacrificing yourself, but at least have fun doing it."
Saying that, Ishtar gently grabbed Haruri's shoulders.
"..."
She had forgotten the warning.
She could be killed. She could see Ishtar snapping her body from her current position.
But despite Haruri's fears...
The goddess of beauty pulled the frightened girl closer and embraced her trembling body.
Ishtar's chest softly and warmly enveloped Haruri's heart.
Haruri was encased in dense magical energy clad in a divine aura, but unlike any of the previous times, she couldn't feel the magical energy's pronounced pressure corroding the core of her being.
She felt a sense of tranquility similar to the hugs she received from her late mother in her childhood, and in this tranquility, Ishtar's magical energy would enter every pore of her body.
"What...?"
She could feel something passing through her Magic Circuits and changing their color.
Yet this didn't feel unpleasant to Haruri. On the contrary, she got the impression that she became part of something bigger, or that the world acknowledged her presence for the first time in her life. Before she noticed, she was covered in tears.
"Ah... Aaaah... I... I..."
Haruri wouldn't believe how much water her head could hold if she wasn't aware of how much she cried. Her heart was agitated, telling her that she learned the truth of the world, that she was finally aware of the meaning of her life. And with that epiphany, she entrusted herself to Ishtar's arms and magical energy.
Haruri stopped her movements and emotions, but Ishtar's voice was nonetheless calm, as if that was no big deal.
"Giving you that warning was the same as saying you'll be sacrificed to me. And I don't need the pointless life of a lost defeatist discarding her own value."
"Is... Ishtar... my goddess..."
"Are you still afraid of me?"
(I already got over this before...)
She remembered throwing away her life once facing Bazdilot in the industrial district.
But her resolve to die back then was ridiculed by the overwhelming power now hugging her.
(I'm so... weak...)
"I a-am."
Haruri believed what escaped her mouth to be the truth, but at that point in time, the fear inside Haruri had already begun to be replaced with a different emotion.
"I'm... terrified. I'd have already, escaped if I, could."
Haruri's paused breathing ruined her enunciation. Ishtar smiled to put her at ease, then whispered to her ears.
"That's great to hear. It's proof that you're still afraid of losing something. Proof that you still want to live. It's true that when I kill you, I'll do it without any hesitation. But I will bless the life you lived, no matter who is against it."
"I... don't deserve..."
"What's your reason to be here? You didn't come here just to be afraid, didn't you?"
"I..."
She could see her brain melting in a pool of corrosive divine energy.
The divine aura started pushing to the surface the emotions she was trying to keep out of her sight. At that instant, she was filled with memories.
Memories of the mages killing her parents.
Images of unfair destruction. Screams. All that made her happy being smashed to pieces.
"Ah... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah..."
The torrent of memories in her brain brought forth her true self.
"I, I just wanted, revenge..."
"Yes, this is the groundwork you were built upon. It's not my blessing. This is yours and yours alone."
"I don't care about how the world is supposed to work... Nothing needs to be arcane, as far as I'm concerned...! I just wanted to give them a little taste of what I felt! They forgot that what's lost never comes back, so I'd remind them! Their lost arcana would never come back... just like my family never will... I wanted to teach them what that felt like..."
Haruri felt the "heat" being quickly drained from her emotions as she spoke.
She realized how insignificant the streaming power of her emotions was compared to the power of an actual god.
She never made light of the life she was offering for her revenge.
But the moment she entered the flow of Ishtar's magical energy, she felt like the world she knew was a tiny fish tank and she had just jumped from her home tank to the ocean. It was like she was being shown the sea of stars.
"I really... ugh... can't do it..."
Her second display of modesty meant death.
Knowing that, she voiced her honest feeling, with no attempt to humble herself.
(Ah, that's right, the goddess before me is a terrible judge of character. She shines so brightly that she can't possibly see me right.)
"You, are, radiance."
Haruri's whispers were tight and cutting off.
"A minuscule... minuscule human... like me... can't stand by your side!"
In the end, Haruri screamed all of her self-hatred. Ishtar pretended she didn't hear that scream, overwriting Haruri's heart with her calm yet powerful voice.
"You're not minuscule. Trust me."
Ishtar closed her eyes to look at her past for a moment, keeping her boiling emotions locked behind those eyelids.
"Revenge... Destroying to recover one's wounded pride is a natural providence. Every being with a will should do it."
Involved in the immense divine aura, Haruri couldn't realize that Ishtar was directing those words to herself.
"Ishtar... my goddess."
"Struggle. I'll be watching over you. All of you humans. No matter what outcome you reach. I'll be watching where fate will take you. Be it to beautiful destruction. Or ugly squirming.", declared the goddess. Her beautiful fingers wiped off Haruri's tears before lowering to her cheeks. "You have permission to enjoy life, celebrate joys, and love the world. Polish your joys and sorrows with your own hands...
and holding on to everything that has value, offer your everything as tribute to me, will you?"
With the voice of a comforting mother, Ishtar said something no mother would ever say to her child and quietly let go of Haruri's shoulders.
Even now, Haruri's tears wouldn't stop.
She immediately lowered her head and kneeled. The stream of tears continued even then.
Ishtar, ever neutrally, watched her from aside, as Haruri's state wasn't laughable or unexpected.
"Use every dirty trick in the book if that's what it takes for you to keep dancing in this world. I promise you I can find something to enjoy even in the most awkward of dances, as long as you never abandon your humanity."
Like a loving mother.
"I can't teach you how to dance... but I can treat you to some nice dress and shoes."
Or a harvester watching the golden wheat grow.
"In the form of a blessing that lets you stomp anyone who dares try to stop you."
Nothing special happened.
She didn't save Haruri's life again, nor did she fight alongside her as she did in the factory the previous day. Nonetheless, Ishtar's blessed or cursed words incurred great change in Haruri's heart.
All she did was cast words coated in magical energy.
That's all it took to irreparably change a mage's outlook on life in a matter of minutes.
This fact is the greatest possible proof that the temple's construction was making her recover her divine status.
Though another possible cause is Heroic Spirit Gilgamesh's magical energy being poured into the Lesser Grail Filia.
Less than an hour later.
"I'm truly sorry for losing my composure."
After finally regaining her calm, Haruri made a formal statement to Ishtar.
"It's fine, I was going to bless you once the temple was completed no matter what. Now you just have to do your head priestess job."
"Certainly. But what exactly does a head priestess do?"
"Let me see... Back in the day, they used to manage the tributes... But the main part is taking care of the temple while I'm away. And we'll have to build a ziggurat eventually... Modern architecture seems cool despite its addiction to verticality. With the amount of blessings I can afford to pay, I can finance a lovely skyscraper, over 2 kilometers tall! Look forward to it!"
Ishtar was speaking like an innocent teenager until her voice suddenly dropped.
"Oh, but before that..."
"?"
Ishtar turned her eyes to the temple's entrance.
Haruri checked to see what she was looking at, but couldn't find anyone.
Ishtar made an announcement to the
priestess sharing her divine aura, but her attention was beyond the entrance—deep into the forest.
"I know it's sudden, but our temple is receiving its first visitor in pilgrimage... You go greet him first, ok?
Originally Posted by Lobo
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