Hikigaya's God Slayer Story

Chapter 8 – The Illusion Within the Stone

In the dimly lit room, brilliance flickered in Hikigaya's eyes. The light twisted and flickered like a flame burning before him, casting reflections.

From his hand came a hissing sound, like a serpent spitting its tongue.

Liliana and Erica stared intently, only to see the Gorgon Stone in his hand—the engraved image of a woman's face with writhing snakes for hair—begin to squirm again. The sound came from the undulating snake hair.

Faced with this bizarre sight, both Liliana and Erica felt a chill in their hearts and instinctively took several steps back.

A wave of cold ran through their bodies from head to toe.

But Hikigaya had no time to worry about their emotions—he was already seeing something.

In his eyes, the stone was glowing, and within the light, a vision emerged.

The first thing he saw was a mountain peak.

It was the top of a tall, majestic mountain, grey in color, with thunder flashing across its summit.

Then, in the next moment, the mountain collapsed, its peak splitting open.

As stones fell like rain into the crevice, an owl flew out. It clutched a snake in its talons, but just as it was about to escape the chasm, its claws loosened—the snake fell.

The vision dove into the crevice after the falling snake. As the serpent dropped, the surrounding light faded. Darkness closed in from all sides.

Then Hikigaya saw a door.

The snake landed before the door, and the moment it touched the earth and stone, it transformed—into a female warrior, human from the waist up and serpentine below.

The human portion of the warrior wore a metal helmet, breastplate, and armguards. She held a heavy iron shield in one hand and a long spear in the other. A bow and quiver were strapped to her back.

When the warrior turned around, Hikigaya was surprised to find that her right breast was flat, in stark contrast to the left, which was prominent.

It was clearly forcibly stunted—there were burn marks as if it had been seared with hot iron. The warrior was not beautiful and bore snake-like eyes full of hostility.

Then, the warrior screamed and charged at the door, smashing it open with her spear. But in doing so, the spear broke.

She tossed it aside and rushed forward, only to encounter another identical door shortly after.

She passed through that door, this time losing another piece of her armor.

Like this, starting from the first door, she passed through seven in total, each time losing a piece of her gear. After breaking through the final door, her body began to shrink, reverting into a snake—then died.

At that moment, an owl flew in from the still darkness. It seized the snake's corpse in its talons and soared upward toward the massive crack in the sky, visible even to the naked eye.

Hikigaya's vision followed the owl as it ascended higher and higher.

After an indeterminate amount of time, everything suddenly brightened—the owl had emerged back atop the mountain. The last thing Hikigaya saw was a massive silver full moon hanging in the sky.

With that, all visions vanished.

Before Hikigaya was only the Gorgon Stone, now returned to silence, and the two girls—Liliana and Erica—looking at him with solemn and anxious expressions.

Hikigaya frowned as he carefully recalled the vision.

There were many things he hadn't fully understood.

Yet he was certain—nothing shown through the Gorgon Stone was unnecessary. He had to figure everything out.

But before that...

"Lili, gather your people. Come with me."

He suddenly said.

Without waiting for Liliana or Erica to ask questions, he had already stood and walked to the door, pushing it open.

Liliana froze for just a second, then dashed out even faster than he did to relay the order to the magi in the building.

Communication among magicians was quick.

In less than thirty seconds, Hikigaya, Liliana, Erica, and all the magicians had left the restaurant. They got into various vehicles parked at the entrance and sped off.

Hikigaya sat in one of the cars, gripping the Gorgon Stone, suppressing its power tightly.

Soon, he felt an overwhelming divine power erupt from the direction of the restaurant, vibrating through the air.

Erica noticed nothing, but Liliana seemed to sense something and instinctively turned to look back.

"Don't look back," Hikigaya immediately warned her. "Otherwise, Athena will notice you."

"Athena?" Liliana wasn't the only one startled—Erica, despite not sensing anything, froze with fear just like her.

No one could truly remain unafraid of a Heretic God.

Erica might once have been slightly exhilarated by such things, but after all that happened on Sardinia, she had developed a healthy fear of them.

And rightly so.

In Europe, cities had been destroyed on a whim by Godslayers.

Though not commonplace, such events weren't exactly rare when viewed on the scale of centuries. In the face of such power, human cities were as fragile as plain paper meeting boiling water.

So knowing that Athena had just been at the place they'd only recently left, both girls were extremely tense.

Hikigaya, however, remained calm. The power of Kuafu was highly effective at suppressing the Gorgon Stone.

Even if she were nearby, Athena likely wouldn't be able to sense it.

He merely gave a casual order: "Drive faster."

Then he closed his eyes and fell silent.

Victory would be his—not Athena's.

.

.

.

The magicians' convoy sped away, leaving the now-empty restaurant behind.

In the corridor, a petite figure walked across the floor, her steps making soft clicking sounds.

The silver-haired girl walked up to a large door. She did nothing, yet the door opened by itself, a slow stream of air drifting outward.

Her eyes opened wide—owl-like pupils gleamed with excitement.

She was the goddess with shining eyes—Tritogeneia. But the world knew her better as Athena.

The wise serpent once depicted on her shield had just been here, but now had fallen into the hands of her enemy.

It must be him. These disciples of Hermes had clearly entrusted the troublesome Gorgon Stone to that young foreign Godslayer.

Now, the Gorgon Stone would be carried overseas, far from this land.

But so be it. There was no hesitation.

The bond between "the serpent" and herself was absolute and unbreakable. It was a core part of her very nature. She believed she and "the serpent" would meet again soon.

When that time came, she would triumph—and take back everything.

She looked forward to it.

Chapter 9 – Journey to Irkutsk

Hikigaya did not stay in Rome any longer. Taking the stone, he headed straight for the airport.

From the illusions shown in the Gorgon Stone, there were still parts he couldn't understand.

In order to buy himself more time to figure things out, he decided to go somewhere farther away.

But he couldn't return to Japan.

After he couldn't deliberately bringing disaster to his home.

Putting himself in others' shoes, he had once been an ordinary person.

There was no reason for him now to treat ordinary lives as expendable, at least not if he could avoid involving them.

Based on all that, Hikigaya decided to go to Siberia.

That place could be described as sparsely populated—an understatement, really. There was no need to worry about collateral damage. He could let loose.

Naturally, arranging all of this was left to the Italian magicians.

After all, these guys had been totally useless with the Gorgon Stone.

The only place they could contribute was in logistics like this.

As for who would accompany him, Liliana and Erica both volunteered.

Liliana aside, Hikigaya really couldn't figure out why Erica was so obsessed with gods.

This woman was something else—when she actually met a god, she got scared stiff, but when it was someone else dealing with gods, she got all fired up.

Hikigaya really wanted to do an X-ray of her brain to see what her internal structure was.

That said, even though he was going to Siberia, it wasn't like he was going to bury his head and dive straight into some uninhabited zone.

He still needed to eat and sleep—he didn't plan to completely rough it.

So, he chose the Lake Baikal area as his base. It met all his requirements.

When he thought of Siberia, Hikigaya always associated it with: cold air, icy wastelands, exile sites and the founders of the former Soviet Union.

When it came to Lake Baikal, he thought of Su Wu herding sheep.

In short, the name alone gave off a cold and bitter vibe. That kind of first impression was exactly why Hikigaya chose it as the battleground.

The plane flew for a long time. But since it was arranged by the Italian magic society, the conditions were quite good.

Hikigaya fell asleep on the plane—it was way more comfortable than when he arrived.

When he was woken by Liliana, who had been randomly assigned to accompany him, he was told they had arrived in Irkutsk.

What kind of name was that? Never heard of it...

"Irkutsk is known as the heart and jewel of Siberia, you know,"

Erica responded when Hikigaya casually asked.

He only half-understood the explanation and then got off the plane with the two of them.

However, the airport was extremely small.

There was only one entry and exit gate.

The entire size of the airport was about the same as the 1950s rural bus station from Hikigaya's old hometown before he crossed over.

But the most infuriating thing was the work efficiency of the Russians. Hikigaya initially planned to keep a low profile and just line up like everyone else, but a queue of fewer than a hundred people took over two hours to process.

Hikigaya reluctantly endured it, chalking it up as a memorable first visit to Siberia.

The passport check afterward was relatively quick—Erica and Liliana helped him get it all done efficiently.

Then suddenly, a group of Russians appeared and demanded that everyone open their luggage for inspection.

Their reason? A few days ago, someone had been caught smuggling prohibited items.

That's when Hikigaya lost his patience. He exhaled once, stirring up a fierce wind that sent all the ordinary people tumbling, and then left arrogantly with Liliana.

As for the aftermath, he believed Erica could handle it.

And Erica didn't let him down. Less than half an hour later, she found them again—though she did look a little resentful.

"Well done, Erica," Hikigaya gave her a thumbs-up with a grin. "As expected of the PR expert."

"That wasn't funny at all, Your Majesty," Erica looked at him with considerable grievance. "Next time, could you at least give me a heads-up?"

"Let's not talk about that. Where are we staying?"

"Our contact just sent the information. Our villa is not in the city."

"Oh? Then no rush. Let's stroll around first."

And with that, Hikigaya followed Erica around.

As they walked, Hikigaya noticed that the city was quite old and had poor infrastructure, especially the road conditions, which were terrible.

What he saw everywhere were plump Russian aunties! This was quite a disappointment for someone who had heard tales about this being a country with more women than men—especially beautiful women.

They randomly walked into a supermarket. Hikigaya noticed that fruits were cheap, dairy products were cheap, chocolate was cheap, beef was mid-priced, and cakes were the cheapest.

Vegetables, on the other hand, were outrageously expensive.

After that, the group went to a nearby restaurant to eat.

Hikigaya enjoyed borscht, braised beef, caviar, and dessert.

Honestly, the desserts really lived up to their name—so sweet it was cloying, and full of rich cream.

No wonder the streets were full of fat aunties.

After eating, he was still full of energy, so he continued sightseeing with Liliana and Erica.

They visited the Znamensky Monastery and the Kazan Cathedral, which were supposedly famous local attractions.

When they visited the church, a baptism ceremony happened to be underway. The baby being baptized looked about one month old.

It was Hikigaya's first time witnessing an Orthodox baptism—though he didn't understand a thing.

His only lasting memory was of a very large metal tub and the baby playing with water inside…

Finally, after eating, drinking, and sightseeing to his heart's content, he finally turned his attention back to business and asked Erica to take him to the villa.

They got into the vehicle that had come to pick them up.

As they left the city, the scenery along the road gradually turned into dense forests, and the road itself rolled like waves. Sitting in the car felt like riding a roller coaster.

It seemed like the Russians built roads by just following the natural terrain—taking the easiest way possible. Thankfully, neither the drivers nor the passengers were ordinary people. Otherwise, the bumpy ride would've been torture.

By the time Hikigaya arrived at the villa, dusk was falling.

He jumped out of the car and took in the scene.

The villa wasn't the luxurious kind, but it had all the necessary facilities. There was even a swimming pool in the yard, and behind it were mountains and untouched forests.

"Nice place," he said, patting his chest—where the Gorgon Stone was stored. "Time to get to work."