It's huge anyway. The dark spirit rises up with its pitch-black, octopus-like legs undulating. Its disastrous appearance was enough to cause fear and disgust in those who saw it.
　With a swipe of the tentacles on its back, part of the temple that stood next to it was easily destroyed. More earthen smoke rose with a roaring sound. What a destructive force.

''Go, a, gua.''

　An unintelligible roar escaped from its large open mouth. Eventually, as if spitting out from its mouth, a pitch-black liquid fell to the ground in clatters. It turns into something humanoid with countless bat-like wings before it falls to the ground. It had a long neck, no ears, nose, or both eyes, a muscular human upper body, and insect-like legs on the lower half of its body.
　It fluttered through the air and scattered throughout the city. People's screams echoed everywhere.

''Gah, guh, rugaah!

　A dark spirit roars to the heavens.

''It's a monster........!
'God help me... please... please... please...!

　You can hear them praying from all around you. But unfortunately, their god is that evil god.
　I guess he doesn't remember him as Ramirez anymore. That thing is just wielding malice and destructive impulses out of instinct.

''I heard that a thousand years ago, the cardinals joined forces to seal it, can't we do it again?
'I don't think so. They were no match for the power of the Cardinals of that time. Most of the Cardinals today can't even use magic...

　No? Well, there is a part of me that can agree with the Pope's words. Compared to those days, I suppose that cardinals nowadays are required to have faith, political skill, and so on, rather than magical ability. I'm not going to be able to get it right.
　There was no way around it. I can't do anything about it.
　When I thought that far, something suddenly flashed in my mind.
　I wondered if I could use this to change the doctrine of the church. I couldn't get the real God to come to me, but if I pretended to be God, defeated him, said something like, "It's an oracle!" to the Pope, and left, I could later be able to sway the cardinal to the Pope's advantage.
　But this is a scam, to say the least. He's trying to deceive everyone. No, if it's in line with the real God's intentions, then it's not a fraud...?
　Unable to judge for myself, I brought His Holiness the Pope and Phyllis into the private house where the residents had escaped and told them what I had come up with.

''I honestly don't feel comfortable fooling the people. But I'm also sure that things will be better than they have been. I want to at least eliminate the teaching of spiritual interference and the inability to forgive people just because they are evil.

　His Holiness looked straight at me and replied clearly. There was no hesitation in his eyes.

'As Pope, I have taught you to worship a God that you know is not there. I suppressed the feeling of being crushed by guilt and told myself that this was also necessary for the good of the country. But if we can change our teachings, we can now talk about God with open arms. You can teach and preach with your hearts that the God you pray to is real and is watching over us. How wonderful it would be if that were the case...

　That's for sure. I don't feel comfortable using God's name for convenience, but let's try it.
　The people would be more happy to be defeated by the God they believe in than by the king of another country. As for Brunhild, it's a chance to ingratiate himself to the Church State, but I'll just put up with it as a loan to the Pope personally.

'But are you sure it's all right? How can you beat such a huge demon! That's a dark spirit, you know!
Hmm, that's something.

　Phyllis's concern is understandable, but my gut feeling is that she's not such a troublesome opponent.
　That spirit's specialty is probably, or rather, absolutely, a mental interference system. However, that ability also seems to be something that is widely and shallowly activated, rather than being pinpointed. That's probably why Ramirez decided to found the Church State. If you have a high resistance to magic like we do, you're probably less susceptible to it, but if you're around it all the time, it might slowly erode you, though. In fact, that's what happened to Ramirez.
　Well, we'll never know until we fight, but I think we can manage it. The problem is that you have to fight like a god. Well, I can handle the appearance and such with "Mirage".
　When I went out to the surface, the dark spirits were slamming their long tentacles into the ground like whips and continuing to destroy the city. It seems the basic attack is a physical attack, after all. Then it seems we can manage it.
　Oops, if we don't hurry, this city will be destroyed. I left the Pope and the others and hid in a back alley. All the while, the Pope and Phyllis are encouraging everyone in the city to pray to God. Normally I'd want them to get out of there as quickly as possible, but in this case, it's a necessary process. I'll have to descend in answer to that prayer.
　Use "Mirage" and change your appearance. Or rather, "change", as in "clothe myself in an illusion to look like that". In case you're wondering, though, I've tried to look like a blonde haired, blue-eyed, Greek mythological god. He's handsome, of course.

How's that?
'It certainly sounds like it, but there's something missing,'

　Amber twitches her head. No, the original God is more humble. Well, Ember has never seen a god before.
　God's image................................then how about this? I wore an illusion that emitted light from my entire body. I thought about the rings on my head and the twelve wings, but that was more of an 'angel' image. There's no point in being a messenger of God.
　When I was thinking about this, I realized one thing I didn't like. Normally, these gods would appear in the sky, right? It's a bit of a stretch for them to appear in front of everyone. I should have remembered the magic of being able to fly. Pretending to be a god is hard work too! It's so hard!
　It's no use. First of all, let's project the illusion of this god in the air. Seriously........there's no point in wearing the illusion. Well, I'll have to do the fighting anyway.
　I project the phantom god into the sky above where the Pope and the others are, and then... whoa, whoa! And the joyful voices of the city's people echoed in the air. All right, first we need to kick those knuckleheads that are rampaging through the city.

''Darkness, come, I seek you, Valkyrie, the radiant maiden of war.

　It's weird to say "Come, Darkness," to call the angel of light. I create several summoning formations around the vision of God and call out a squad of angels. They're the ones I signed up for after the imperial commotion before. Back then, the only one who could fly was a gryphon, and it was hard to find someone who could fly.

''Defeat the enemies created by the dark spirits and protect the people of the city.

　When I delivered the order via telepathic communication, the war angels scattered all over the city at once. To tell the truth, I could have locked on with my phone and then hit them with light magic, but that would have been done in an instant. And the inhabitants would be left with no idea what happened. I'm sorry to say it, but it's also staged.
　You might say that it's impudent when people's lives are at stake, but I don't think the household members are attacking the humans. They are just rampaging. But that doesn't change the fact that they are still dangerous. They might even die as collateral damage.
　Following the appearance of God, the people of the city are jubilant at the appearance of his angels, his angels.
　All right, I'll move on, too. I'll disappear in "Invisible" and take God's vision like a kite on the roof. That's not good enough. I need some kind of magic that can fly. I'm not sure if it's a good idea. It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for. It's a good idea to have a good time.
　I'm not going to be able to get my hands on any of them.
　I erase the God of Illusion, and while wearing the same illusion, I take out a large sword with a blade length of about two meters from the 'storage'.
　This great sword, made of fragments of flames, is lightened by 'Gravity' so it can be handled with one hand. The sword, which glistens like crystal, gives off a mystical image in its own way, doesn't it?
　A dark spirit that turns its body towards me and looks down at me. I don't have eyes, but I could feel that. The tentacles on my back fly towards me.

''Yo,''

　He swung his great sword sideways while avoiding it. The tentacle was severed with a zupan and flew off in a thousand pieces. An eerie black mist-like substance overflows from the tentacle's severed surface. Ugh, disgusting.
　Before I could even think that, the tips of the torn tentacles dissipated into clouds and the tentacles regenerated. You have that kind of ability? It's troublesome.
　I can't be too fiddly as a (fake) god. I thought about knocking it over with a slip, but the damage to the city would be too great if it was this huge. Let's just kill it.

Target locked on. Target Target, Spirit of Darkness. Activate Gravity.
Copy that. End of acquisition. Activating gravity.

　Next thing you know, gogaaaaah! The dark spirit couldn't withstand the effects of Gravity and fell over onto its side. Naturally, the part of the city underneath the fallen spirit collapsed and was destroyed. Ugh, it would be 'Slip' after all, but it's the same result! It's awkward. I'm supposed to be a god, for a start.
　It's not good. In this situation, I'm going to have to make a big decision and say "if the attack was that fierce, it would be unavoidable"...is that too much to ask?
　Anyway, there's no choice but to end it with overwhelming force. With that in mind, I weight the "Gravity", but I'm not sure if it's going to be effective. This guy doesn't even have an expression on his face. It seems to be able to suppress it, though. So...

"Light, pierce me, shining holy spear, Shining Javelin!

　A spear of light pierced through the dark spirit's body. This time, that pierced hole did not regenerate again. After all, since it was a dark spirit, does this mean that it was weak to light magic?

''Target lock-on. One hundred ... no, two hundred rounds of 'Shining Javelin' to match the spirit of darkness.
Copy that. End of capture.

　A small magic circle of light unfolds one after another in the sky above. Take a God (Pachimon) blow (two hundred rounds).

'Simultaneous firing.'
Copy that. Open fire.

　Dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo Dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo dodo!!!

　The ground vibrated loudly as the Shining Javelin fired in unison. The dark spirit's body was shredded into small pieces by the spears that rained down like a rain of light, and eventually, by the time the simultaneous firing was over, it hadn't retained its shape. The fragments of the shredded body spread like a black mist and drifted around the area. This is probably also a dark spirit. It would be troublesome if they took the time to revive me. I will eliminate them thoroughly.

''Come light, banish the radiance, Vanish.''

　He slammed the purification magic in a wide area. A dazzling flash of light enveloped the area, dissipating the scattered black mist as it dissolved.
　After the light disappeared and the dark spirits disappeared completely, one person's worth of white bones were lying on the ground. Eventually it, too, crumbled into pieces and turned to ashes and was swept away by the wind.
　I wonder if that was Ramirez. After a thousand years, he must have finally been freed. It is a pity, even if it is deserved.
　Now, here comes the crucial moment. Will I do my best to fool everyone!