Chapter 24: Coming on the Wind
"Hehehe…"
Set laughed in an extremely unsettling manner, his dog-like eyes scanning up and down Hikigaya. As for the shrine maiden clinging to Hikigaya, he completely ignored her.
"Ah, those detestable Eyes of Horus. I should've crushed your eyes too." Set stepped forward, and the storm grew more intense. But as the wind reached Hikigaya, it was split apart by some invisible force. "But how long can you hold out? You're not even here, are you?"
He stared viciously at Hikigaya's pale face and sneered, "Little priest, I'll tear you apart soon. Just wait for it."
I'm not a priest, damn it!
"But waiting is really boring, so before that… let's have some fun…"
Set let out a cackling laugh and suddenly reached out his hand. With a scream, the girl who had been clinging to Hikigaya was flung into the air.
Hikigaya quickly reached out to catch her.
Even so, wind pressure had already carved bloody gashes on her body.
If Hikigaya had been even a second slower, she would've been torn apart by the storm.
"You two are really close, huh? Heh… but too bad. Even Isis can't stop me." This act seemed to infuriate Set, who roared furiously, "Ah, damn Osiris! Damn Osiris! I wish I could kill him again!"
Set stretched out his arm toward the shrine maiden.
"You smell nice… Are you a descendant of the 'serpent'? Why not serve me? I'll sink this place and give it to you as a reward."
His offer was answered by the shrine maiden's blade.
Though it was uncoordinated and simply a desperate flail born of fear, at that moment, the Eye of Horus emitted a brilliant light that shone on Set's hand, making him recoil as if burned.
This clearly enraged him. He began cursing and roaring in a language Hikigaya didn't understand, his expression turning even more ferocious.
Hikigaya seized the opportunity and pulled the girl back toward him with all his might.
He realized something—The Eye of Horus could still protect him and anything he touched.
But just as Set had said, it might not last much longer.
"Do something! If this keeps up, we're both dead!"
The girl in Hikigaya's arms gritted her teeth and shouted.
"Even if you say that, I don't even know what I'm supposed to do!" Hikigaya responded helplessly. Did she think he didn't want to?
Slaying a god—was there anything cooler than that?
But he just couldn't do it! This was a protective charm, not some kind of god-slaying whip!
"You really are clueless…" the girl stared fixedly at Hikigaya's face for a while before sighing, "I thought you were an ally… turns out you're just a normal person. Seriously! Where the hell did Grandpa go?!"
"Who's your grandpa?" Hikigaya asked.
"Grandpa is… never mind, telling you is useless. Speaking of which, who are you?"
That's definitely a condescending glare!
Unbelievable!
Smack!
Without hesitation, Hikigaya smacked her hard on the lower back, producing a loud slap. While she stared at him in outrage, he smirked and said, "Seriously admire you—almost died and still so arrogant. Can't even tell your savior your name?"
As he said this, his voice trembled a little.
Yep—truth is, he was scared out of his mind. This was Set! A god!
"Hmph! No way I'm telling someone like you my name! I'd be ridiculed if people found out!"
The hell, didn't you just say it?!
"Ena? That's your first name, right? What's your surname?"
"Hold it! Don't call me by my name!"
"Too bad. You didn't say your last name, so I'm just gonna call you Ena."
"Ugh… fine! I'll make an exception—you're allowed to call me Lady Seishuin!"
Seishuin…
Ena…
Seishuin Ena!
Hikigaya stared at her intently. Sure enough, her pupils had a reddish tint, just like in the anime.
Seriously, transitioning from 2D to 3D is hard—you'd never recognize someone just by looking at them in real life!
Then the blade she held… that had to be Ame-no-Murakumo.
Hikigaya looked at the sword in Ena's hand and was shocked to see that it had transformed into the exact form from the anime.
But the blade wasn't black—it was white, with faint traces of lightning coursing over it.
The anime mentioned it was essentially a demigod weapon.
Still, even a demigod-tier item was useless against a Heretic God. If it weren't, she wouldn't have needed his help earlier, right?
"So what do we do now? You're a shrine maiden, right? Don't you have any bright ideas?" Hikigaya asked.
Honestly, he never wanted to slay a god.
His only wish was to get out of this alive. As for Set—if someone else could deal with him, great. Hikigaya just wanted to go home and eat his little sister's late-night cooking.
Even surviving at this point felt like a luxury.
"How should I know? Also, how can a normal person like you use divine tools? Isn't that weird?" Ena glared at him, still angry from being smacked. "Something in your pants has been warm this whole time. What is it?"
Then she seemed to realize something and her expression changed.
"Wait! Don't tell me it's that thing?! Gross!!"
"Gross, your sister… What do you mean, pants?"
The heat in his pants pocket was growing, getting hotter by the second.
"Hold onto me!"
Hikigaya shouted, wrapping his right arm tightly around Ena's waist. With his left hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the scorching item.
It was that bug corpse—but now, it was completely different.
It had grown several times larger and transformed from pitch black to shining gold!
Hikigaya finally recognized what it was.
It was a golden scarab.
Almost at the same time, Set suddenly stopped his ranting.
He stared fixedly at the golden scarab in Hikigaya's hand.
The next moment, without any warning, he let out a furious roar.
"So it was YOU! OSIRIS!!!"
With his enraged bellow, the sky itself seemed to erupt.
If the wind had been chaotic before, it now became far more organized and intense, centered around Set, producing explosive bursts of sound.
Set's figure also began to grow larger in the storm.
"Damn coward! Come and die!"
His roars came from all directions. In that instant, both Hikigaya and Seishuin Ena had looks of utter despair on their faces.
But at that very moment, as Set roared, the golden scarab in Hikigaya's hand began to change.
What had been a dead object now seemed to come alive, chirping and shining even more brightly.
Set stared at it with eyes full of hatred and shouted, "Destroy it, my beast! Go and kill the blasphemer!"
From the storm came the roar of a beast. A strange animal appeared, riding the wind as it approached.