Chapter 101 – In the Woods (7)

The sight of a person being punched and flying seemed unreal. A man holding a flashing fluorescent stick to rip me off clumsily pounced on me. His bat hit me with a white bullet before it bounced back and flew away.

“Oh, what!”

Lumia once again drew the light bullets into her fingertips and said.

“Back off. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“All right, get out! I let her in nicely, but what the hell is this… !”

Match!

The sound of slapping the ear resounded coolly. After spinning two laps in the air, the man was scattered on the floor like garbage. I brushed off his hand and pushed the man into a corner.

“Catch it!”

“Conquer! Guilty! It is an educational object!”

Still people kept pouring out. They seemed to sincerely believe that what they were doing was right. Rumia grabbed another man who jumped out beside her by the collar, then she snapped his arm and straddled her legs.

“Aaaaagh!”

The man’s body spun like a wheel in the air, and Rumia’s hand accurately struck the man’s spinning stomach. White light shot up his spine, and the man’s body ricocheted forward like a bullet.

“Aaaaagh!”

The people who were tightly packed in front of us were hit by the victim’s direct charge and fell down like dominoes.

“A monster, a monster!”

“Too strong! Master Andrew! Master Andrew! We all die like this!”

“I won’t fucking kill you, so get out of here. Dogs.”

I screamed again, kicking the butt of the man who was crawling on the floor and running away, and people escaped from us and disappeared into the darkness like cockroaches. As the figures of the people disappeared, the torture chamber came into view. A blue light was still shining through the blurry crack in the window.

Its appearance, twinkling like a star, matched so well with this dark space. I took a step toward the light that dyed Rumia and my face blue, and reached out my hand toward the door.

The door to the torture chamber was loose. As I grabbed the doorknob and pulled with all my might, I heard a scream and the door was ripped open. The man who screamed as he hit the floor with his whip shouted with a face bluer than mana stones as he watched us enter.

“What, what! What are you doing!”

There was no reason to answer. The boy was looking at me with a teary face, his hair standing up from the mana shock. The tear-stained cheeks and the trembling, slender body made me feel even worse.

“You are guilty! The sinner is here!”

The man screamed like an alarm. He stretched out his whip and swung it at me. His pointy ends were clearly intended to inflict pain.

The whip flew toward me very slowly, wriggling like a poisonous snake. In the meantime, my body, which had been strengthened by absorbing demons and spirits, was moving at a speed that the zealot’s whip could not keep up with. Avoiding the sharp stinger aiming at my head, grabbing the whip and dragging the man towards me.

“Uh huh? What, what!”

The bewildered zealot leaned forward and I slammed his knee hard and punched him in the jaw. There was the sound of his jawbone breaking like a cookie. The inward-turned jaw smashed into the roof of his mouth, teeth protruding in all directions like water droplets.

His whole body floated up from the recoil, and he returned to the arms of God without even being able to scream. His eyes were losing their light, unable to erase his astonishment, as he felt the fact that he had died a beat too late.

The body rolled across the floor. Eddie stood there blankly, still holding on to the lever. He was looking at us with a complicated expression. I said, raising his arm.

“Isn’t it easier to make an excuse for getting hit than for you to be unscathed here?”

“…Please don’t hurt me.”

Match!

Eddie rolled across the floor with a slap. It was a gentle blow, but Eddie groaned as he rolled on the floor, as if it really hurt. In the meantime, Rumia undid the belt that had tied the boy up and lifted the body.

It was limp like a ventriloquist doll, and it looked like it was dead.

“Your body is very hot. I think I need to go outside and treat it.”

“Okay? Let’s get out quickly.”

Rumia opened the door first and left, and I looked at Eddy, who was crouching in the corner, avoiding the light of the mana stone. I wanted to say something, but it didn’t seem like it was my subject, so I shook my head and ran out again.

“Priest Rumia! What is this!”

And the entrance was more tightly sealed than expected. People were glaring at us with mana sticks, and Priest Andre stood at the forefront with a frown on his face. His face was so viciously contorted that it gave him the impression of a biblical demon.

I shouted as I took her child from Rumia.

“No matter how guilty you are, is it right to treat a child like this? Are you a fucking torturer?”

Priest Andrew shouted in a louder voice.

“Shut up! Unless you wash away your sins! Never, don’t you know that a sinner can never become a new man! Endless asceticism and training! That alone can turn a sinner into a man! Only that can lead us all to heaven! Why don’t you know that this is ultimately for the sake of the world!”

Rumia shook her head. A cold sweat broke from her brow, and her face was filled with anguish.

“Priest Andrew. You weren’t such a radical person when you were in the church, were you? Why did you change like this? How could you lead such a young child to the path of self-mortification? Where are the teachings given to us as monks? Didn’t the priest tell you? Even sinners should be given a chance. God’s mercy works for everyone.”

Priest Andre opened his mouth wide. The saliva running down his beard was unpleasant. I rolled my eyes to find a gap, but it seemed difficult to break through because there were so many people inside.

“Why don’t you know that you can’t defeat their wickedness with foolish prayers! I remember those wicked aristocrats who mocked their serpentine tongues in front of me to say that they had repented, then turned around and committed crimes again! You’re smearing my face! Those who sold everything on the altar as hypocrisy! How can you filter it out with just prayer! At last! What a person needs to repent is penance! With endless self-torture! Only fervent prayer! It turns beasts back into humans!”

“Priest…”

Rumia looked at Priest Andrew with a pitiful expression. Priest Andrew looked up at the sky and stretched out his hand.

“Ahhh! Oh God! Give me the strength to defeat those filthy saboteurs! Ahhh! Oh God! Aaaaa!”

“What, what?”

“…God?”

Suspicious smoke was emanating from around Priest Andre’s body. White smoke enveloped his body, and the people around him began to back away. Andre radiated white eyes and shouted vigorously.

“It’s not just the hero who received the revelation! The day I was kicked out of the altar! God gave me a revelation! He gave me riches and strength and said: My child Andre! Gather people with what’s under my feet and build a building! Save the wicked!”

“…This is not divine power.”

“Yes.”

Both Rumia and I nodded her heads. She was mimicking a holy feeling similar to divine power, but this power was not divine power. Rather, something close to the devil’s power was strongly felt. People backed up and shouted.

“Priest Andrew uses miracles! Everyone back down!”

“Miracle?”

People were retreating, but we had nowhere to run. People were crammed into every nook and cranny of the straight corridor, so there was no cover. Andre continued to scream, stirring the sky.

“Ahhh! Oh God! Give me strength! Give me strength!”

Then, behind him, two elongated figures that looked like snakes appeared, wrapping themselves around each other and disappearing. It seemed that waves were coming from all directions. Feeling a strange feeling weighing down on my body, I hugged the child tightly and crouched down, and Rumia raised her divine power and made a complicated expression. Wings suddenly appeared behind Andre’s back, then disappeared, and his face was strangely distorted.

“Ah… What, what did you say? Sir, are you god? Why… Ah… All right.”

The feeling of pressure is gone.

People who were trembling in fear of the miracle stuck their heads out. We stretched our tense bodies and looked at Andre. In the silence, Andre said with a firm expression.

“Go away. Right now!”

We couldn’t understand English. Why he sent us so nicely, the others didn’t seem to know either. There was no time for exchanging questions and answers. We had to get out of this filthy place quickly before he changed his mind and attacked.

Sinners were looking at us with wide eyes. They reached out to ask for them to be taken as well, but were stopped by soldiers.

“Aaaaagh!”

“Aaaaagh!”

“Don’t stretch out your hand! Turn your head! Are there still those who have not reflected on their sins!”

Andre was standing in the middle of the dark hallway, muttering to himself, and I carried the boy on my back as I stepped forward.

“…Am I leaving?”

I heard the boy’s voice from behind.

“Huh.”

The carriage was visible in the distance.

“…Well, what will happen if I go? What do you do?”

“I’ll have you work at the vineyard.”

Sophia and Isabelle were working, so they probably could afford to put a boy on the farm by now.

“I will teach you not to do bad things, what is bad and what is good. I will send you to school.”

“…Why are you nice to me?”

Love. Justice.

Old and outdated names.

“…I haven’t tried it.”

It was never for that reason.