Chapter 19: A New Skill Again
As Hikigaya stared into a "world" invisible to ordinary people, his eyes turned crimson, like stars burning in the darkness of the universe.
The figures of Ramses and the others involved in the ritual faded from his vision.
The towering obelisk, the moist earth, and the gently flowing Nile River all dispersed like ink dropped into water.
Hikigaya felt as though his body was being extracted from the mortal realm and stepping into a bizarre dimension.
The surroundings were dim, reminiscent of when he had been within Athena's divinity, yet still somehow different.
In that darkness, he saw his companions—Yukino, Haruno, and Hazazi—drifting like driftwood on a river. He also saw Tamamo-no-Mae—the fox had come too—held in Yukino's arms!
Yet despite being in the same darkness, their images seemed cut apart, as though they were in separate places. Their forms weren't equally clear.
Haruno's figure was the clearest. Hikigaya could see solar power surrounding and protecting her.
She was naked, curled up like a baby in the womb, light spilling from her skin yet clinging closely to her body.
Hikigaya tried to reach her, but his power couldn't pass through.
Still, his effort wasn't entirely in vain—because in the next moment, the three people and one fox were bathed in a light from the outside, and scenes began to form in the direction they were headed.
In front of Haruno appeared a barren highland filled with scattered rocks.
In front of Yukino and Hazazi was a yellow-orange desert—rolling dunes faintly visible. However, this landscape was far fuzzier compared to Haruno's.
Now Hikigaya finally understood why Ramses couldn't find them along the Nile.
Forget the Nile—even if he searched all the way to the Yin-Shang period of China, they wouldn't be found. These folks were still trapped inside the Black Sun!
But from the looks of it, they were about to emerge.
Still… Why did none of them follow the "proper script"? They fell into the Nile, right? Shouldn't they reappear from the Nile?
Hikigaya scratched his head violently, feeling overwhelmed.
Yukino, Hazazi, and the damn fox seemed likely to land in the desert—which was still something to work with.
But Haruno's location was completely confusing, clearly not in Egypt.
Surveying the regions around ancient Egypt, that type of terrain was too generic—there were plenty in West Asia, Anatolia, and even in the Aegean and Greek regions.
He needed a "big screen mode."
Hikigaya channeled his power again, still able to sense divine energy. The might of the gods was stimulating his own to peak performance.
And it worked.
He realized he could now zoom in—though only on Haruno's scene.
Pleased, Hikigaya decided to give this new ability a cool name: "Glare-to-Zoom!"
As Haruno's image shrank to the size of a star in the night sky, Hikigaya's eyes ached from the strain.
But finally, he saw the so-called highland clearly—it was a conical mountain.
A large one, set in the sea. The terrain flattened at the base to form an island, and beyond the island, a crescent-shaped isle surrounded it across a water channel, leaving only a narrow gap.
The shape looked eerily familiar. He was sure he'd seen it somewhere.
But this was as far as he could go. This Glare-to-Zoom skill didn't come with subtitles.
He stared hard at the island, committing its features to memory.
Eventually, the vision blurred and dispersed like ink in water. Darkness engulfed him again.
When light returned, all illusions vanished.
Hikigaya found himself still at the construction site of the Million-Year Temple.
The air was thick with frankincense—the scent came from the grains Ramses had scattered. All divine energy had disappeared without a trace.
It seemed Ramses had completed the foundation ritual. He and his wife were now surrounded by priests, muttering to the heavens.
The still-dazed Hikigaya listened in for a while and gathered that they were basically saying things like: "Oh mighty god, please bless Egypt, we're so awesome, please support us more," and the like.
Shaking his head, Hikigaya tried recalling the island that had felt so familiar—but he couldn't place it, no matter how long he thought.
He deeply missed the era of infinite information search tools. Now, he could only hope that someone in ancient Egypt might recognize the place.
Looking around, no one seemed to have noticed the strange phenomenon he had just experienced. Ramses was still by the obelisk, caressing it like a lover.
Rubbing his temples, Hikigaya thought again about that ancient Hebrew—Moses—who had long piqued his curiosity. Ramses hadn't brought that foreign friend along this time.
Whether "Moses" was just a coincidence of name or something more, Hikigaya had originally planned to observe him carefully—but...
Finding the girls comes first.
They'd, after all, shared a certain connection, and while no news was one thing, ignoring them when there was news would be immoral.
Hikigaya approached the obelisk. Ramses had just finished his affectionate rubbing and turned toward him.
"My friend, sorry to keep you waiting," said the pharaoh cheerfully. "Did you happen to see something just now?"
"Oh? You noticed?"
"No, just a guess. Only those who see the temple can bless it."
The pharaoh signaled for someone to bring a papyrus scroll and handed it to Hikigaya.
"The gods have chosen you. That was expected. Now, use your power to engrave the words."
Hikigaya unrolled the scroll and saw a passage of scripture.
Ramses then asked, "Could you also describe what kind of temple you saw?"
"…"
Hikigaya fell silent—he couldn't admit he'd spent the whole time staring at the girl. He mumbled a few vague words and turned his attention to the scroll.
After all this time, he had greatly improved his understanding of hieroglyphics. He quickly understood the meaning and recited it aloud:
"May every mouth that speaks evil, that opposes or attempts to oppose the Pharaoh, be forever sealed. May this temple repel demons and protect the life of the royal family."
While reciting, he used his finger to carve each symbol into the stone stele.
When he finished the last word, he once again felt divine power—but this time, it entered the stele directly, not lingering in the air.
This deepened his understanding of how people in this era used divine power.
He also confirmed that this method of borrowing divine strength posed no threat to a Godslayer like himself—based on his observation, these priests had no ability to manipulate divine power independently.
At that moment, Nefertari approached, holding a sapling. The royal couple knelt together and planted it in the ground.
"Take good care of it," Ramses told his high priest after watering it carefully. "May it grow alongside my temple. Before the gods take me by the hand, let me meet the western goddess beneath this tree."
Seeing Ramses about to launch into another long, poetic speech, Hikigaya couldn't bear it. He interrupted:
"Sorry, but I just saw my lost companions. Is there anyone who can identify a location based solely on terrain?"
The initially annoyed pharaoh was about to glare—but quickly composed himself and gave Hikigaya a grin so baldly phony that he nearly earned a punch.
The one who answered, however, was not Ramses but the high priest with a smooth head and painted-on eyebrows.
"Yes, it is possible, honored one," the high priest said with a slight bow. "But... that depends on how clearly you saw it."
"Then I'll trouble you with it," Hikigaya replied.