Chapter 195 – The Temple
“Are you all right?”
Chan reached out to Nixon, who was near him. Nixon gladly took Chan’s hand and stood up.
“I barely lived. Because he showed up when I thought it was my turn.”
The adventurers who were being massacred by the leader of the Red Riding Hood Bandit.
Thanks to the appearance of the meteor, he narrowly saved his life and was currently recovering.
“…Many died.”
Nixon said, looking at the corpses of adventurers rolling around. More than half of the adventurers who came this far died. The number of corpses was estimated to be over thirty.
“If we had done something wrong, we would have been like that too.”
“That… Is terrible.”
None of the corpses lying on the floor had intact limbs. Because if the bandit leader swung his sword, all of his arms and legs would be cut off.
The only thing that was fine was a corpse with only the head blown off.
Seeing the bodies, Nixon shuddered.
“I’m so glad he came. I almost never saw my wife’s face again.”
“It’s still too early to be relieved.”
“What?”
“That monster isn’t dead yet.”
Chan pointed at the bandit leader with his finger. Nixon followed his fingers and turned his head.
As Chan said, the bandit leader was still alive. Not only were they alive, but they were also responding to the attacks of meteors and spirits.
“What is that child? Are you immortal? How do you block that movement with that body?”
To Nixon, the motion of the meteor was spectacular. At least to the extent that he couldn’t even dare to imitate him at the same level.
However, the monster reacted to such a movement. He blocked the quick and accurate knife cut and avoided the attacks of the spirits. It is to the extent that it cannot be regarded as the movement of a person who has been hit with a knife four times.
Chan gave the answer to his question.
“What did that monster swallow?”
“You swallowed it?”
“Yes, I swallowed something like round black pellets. After that, the blood flowing from the wound decreased and it looks like that.”
At Chan’s words, Nixon narrowed his eyes and looked at the bandit boss.
The blood flowing from the wound had really diminished.
“What the fuck is that?”
It’s a foul, that kind of thing.
“…The fight is getting too long. If you do that, your stamina will be severely lost… If you make a mistake like that, it’s the end.”
“Damn… I think I’ll be able to do something if I make a gap for a moment…”
…
Chan and Nixon faced each other. A face full of determination. Even though they weren’t particularly strong, they were the elite of the adventurer’s guild, the same grade.
“I wanted to see my wife’s face again, but I can’t.”
“I was thinking of confessing to her by buying her a ring as her pay when this job is over. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to give up.”
The two faced each other and laughed. Eventually, with a serious expression, Nixon raised his spear while holding a greatsword. It was the time when he was about to run at the bandit boss.
“Would you mind giving me a window?”
A soft voice came from behind.
The woman, who had covered her face with her cloth, took her spear against her request.
“Hey wait, what are you doing…”
A panicked Nixon hadn’t even finished his speech. She took a woman’s stance and she threw her spear at it.
Whoo!
The spear flew towards the bandit leader with a powerful blast.
“This.”
The bandit leader only realized its existence when the spear came closer. It was too late to dodge. I have no choice but to block it.
He turned and swung his sword at the window.
Kaaaaang!
“?!”
Big metal sound.
The power of creativity is much stronger than expected. I felt a lot of resistance in my hands, and strength went into my whole body.び々. Along with the bitter pain, blood flowed like a fountain from the wound.
“OMG!”
The window bounced upwards. The spear that had been flying violently lost its power and whirled around in the air.
‘What kind of bastard would throw a javelin like this…?’
The bandit leader turned his head in the direction the spear had come from, then hesitated. It wasn’t a time like this. We have to deal with that nimble guy right away…
“Damn it.”
You’re late.
Looking at the dagger right in front of his eyes, the bandit leader thought.
Hooked Kwadeuk.
The dagger went through the eye socket and pierced the brain. The leader of the bandits, who was notorious in the Fromm kingdom, met his death like that. Yooseong pushed the bandit boss who had fallen on his shoulder.
Fluff. The body of the bandit leader fell to the ground.
Yuseong crouched down and searched the body of the bandit leader.
‘It should be around here… Ah, I found it.’
A small pouch made of tough leather.
It contained black pills. If you count the number, it looks like there are about ten.
‘It’s fine.’
Got a good stimulant.
I don’t know the side effects, but looking at how these bandits used it, it wouldn’t be a big problem to use it once or twice.
It was time for Yooseong to feel better by getting good supplies. Someone grabbed his hair and turned his head wildly.
‘What?’
I knew it was coming, but to do this…
-Jjook.
Moist feeling on the lips.
When their faces touched each other to the extent that there was almost no sense of distance, they could see their faces wrapped in cloth.
‘Seris?’
The one who quickly approached and cast a lip smack was Seris.
After realizing that Seris was safe, Yooseong felt at ease. She wrapped her arms around Celis’ waist and slowly tasted her lips.
Noises were heard from everywhere. I can hear whistling and sarcasm asking if this is the main room of a centipede’s house.
Yoosung ignored those sounds and slowly removed her head after fully enjoying the kiss with Seris.
She asked, stroking her cheek.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Yes I am fine. Are you really not hurt anywhere?”
“Huh? Uh, uh I’m fine too.”
You? Did Celis originally use those words? Yuseong, who felt a sense of incongruity in her, soon found out what had changed in her.
“Ceris, what’s wrong with your eyes?”
“Eye? What are your eyes?”
“Your eyes are red. Did the blood vessels burst?”
Yuseong brought his face closer to Seris’s eyes and examined them closely. Seris, who was watching her, smiled.
“It’s nothing. It’s because the energy of the Heavenly Demon God has risen.”
“The energy of the Heavenly Demon Spirit has risen?”
“I’ll talk about the details later. I need to talk to Kara too.”
“Are you with Kara too?”
“Yes. We fell together from the beginning. Kara?”
At Seris’ call, Kara walked out of the group of adventurers in the distance.
It’s really Kara Thinking that Yoosung was lucky for her, he approached her Kara and held her in her arms.
“Thank god. Are you not hurt?”
“Ugh, yeah. There is no pain anywhere.”
“But why is your voice so weak?”
Kara felt a sense of incongruity in a different way from Celis. Rolling her eyes here and there was an expression of something restless.
‘Why is he like this?’
I am a child who is a natural adventurer. She was not a child who panicked when an unexpected situation occurred while carrying out the request.
Then what is it for? As she pondered, Kara looked up at her meteor and asked her softly.
“Didn’t your sister tell you?”
“Huh? Tell me what?”
“…You haven’t told me yet.”
Thank god. Nodding her head, Kara seems to have calmed down more than before.
‘What? Was there something between them that I don’t know about?’
It was when Yooseong was wondering.
“There, the touching reunion is about that, so let’s open it quickly.”
An adventurer pointed to a huge door guarded by a middle-aged man and said, Yeah, she knows everything is okay, so she has to go to work. Yooseong let Kara go and walked in front of the huge door.
Seris and other adventurers were gathered in front of the door.
It seemed like we had to open it together because of the size. Each adventurer clung to the door.
“Come on, one, two, three and it’s open!”
One, two, three!
The adventurers clinging to the door began to exert great force.
Rattle. Hard.
The door Seris and Yuseong had been pushing began to push. Starting with him, the door on the other side also began to slide, and soon it opened completely.
“What the fuck is this…”
The adventurers were at a loss for words at the unreal sight seen through the huge door.
* * *
Sister Catherine opened her eyes.
She was speechless at the strange sight before her eyes.
A large road in the center is left empty, and hundreds of people are standing at attention.
Some of them were conscious, like Sister Catherine, and others were not awake, but the important thing is that they all had something black stuck in their heads.
It seems like a kind of black magic to shimmer with a special aura.
‘What the heck is this…’
Sister Catherine did not understand the current situation. She must have been shocked by the bizarre appearance of the corridor until just a while ago…
‘Come to think of it, the floor suddenly glowed…’
Could it be because of that…?
Catherine rolled her eyes. She wants to turn her head, but her body won’t move from her attention position.
‘If it’s because of that light, other brothers and sisters might be in this condition too.’
Sure enough, among the people I could find Sister Nella and Sister Yuri and other sisters.
‘Sister Nella! Glass nun!’
Both were unconscious. Katherine tried to move her body, but in vain. She doesn’t move as if her body is numb.
It was as Sister Catherine, who had lost control of her body, began to panic. A whisper came to my ears.
When I opened my eyes, I saw things I hadn’t seen before.
A pillar that glows black in the center.
Something black rising above people’s heads was connected there.
Around the black pillars were surrounded by people wearing suspicious robes that covered their faces.
What are they talking about It wasn’t too far away, so Catherine listened to her.
– Our long-cherished dream is not far away.
-That’s right. How long have I been waiting for this day…
-I heard from the bishop that the former bishop devoted himself even before his death.
-That’s right. At that time, I was also full of blood. It was because he squeezed his hair to try to make an offering to the daughter of an aristocratic family.
Haha, so did you succeed?
-Of course! Who am I? The memory of the day I gave the girl rest with my own hands is still vivid.
Offering? Rest?
Apparently, as Catherine expected, they were a group of cultists who occupied Crommore.
But what is your dream?
What is your dream, why are you doing this?
Fortunately, that question was soon resolved.
-But that hardship is over now. When he wakes up, all the hard work we’ve done will be rewarded. That paradise is about to unfold.
-He needs the souls of all those humans to wake up.
-It’s a sacrifice for paradise. They too will endure it with a happy heart.
Among the cultists who were chanting something suspicious, the only two cultists wandering around without reciting the spell laughed.
Catherine couldn’t help but laugh.
After overhearing the conversations of those cultists, I realized the situation I was in.
She, they were the scapegoat for the advent of the false gods of cultists. Not just a scapegoat, but a scapegoat that sacrifices its soul.
‘Soul..!? So, then this black thing on top of my head is pulling out my soul?!’
Can not be done.
Absolutely not.
Even if it was okay to yield a hundred times and die, it was absolutely not enough to sacrifice one’s soul for the false god of the cult.
Dedicate your body and soul to serving Lord Yurmia with all your heart. Then, one day, on the day you return to the earth, Lord Yurmia will embrace you warmly.
A story that I heard deafeningly at the convent as a child.
She believes in that one thing and has suffered to the bone as a nun.
But if you give your soul to that cultist’s vain god, all of that will be in vain.
I will no longer be able to be held in Yurumia-sama’s arms.
It was a crueler sound than a death sentence for a believer in God.
‘Somehow… I have to get out somehow.’
There will be some way
If you think about it calmly…
-Ah, it’s almost finished!
Suddenly, a strong headache came.
It felt strange to be an ordinary headache, but it felt like something was being pulled out of my body.
Katherine realized this was a draining process, and she despaired.
‘I haven’t even figured out a way out yet!’
You mean it ended like this?
Ah, Miss Yurmia. Please give this lamb salvation. Save the believer who has served you all his life.
Catherine in a panic.
That was the moment.
Rattle. Drooling.
The door, which seemed to be firmly shut and would not move, opened. Beyond the open door, you can see the adventurers who joined the Crusade together. They were looking inside with bewildered eyes.
‘Brother Yuseong Han!’
Among the adventurers, there were some familiar faces.
In Sister Catherine’s mind, the conversation she had had with him on the way to the temple flashed back to her.
– Are the words of Sister Nella true? Will you help me if I’m in danger?
– It’s like that, what.
