Chapter 39 – Irian Of The Forgotten Temple (3)

The group, ready, stepped into the darkness.

The temple, carved into a massive mountain range, was vast, and all of it was shrouded in darkness. The hazy dust that had accumulated seemed to indicate how long it had been since anyone had set foot here.

The pure white flames emitted by the divine power were burning away the darkness, but the thick shadows constantly danced around the group. Beyond the boundary of the light, the dense darkness seemed to stimulate a person’s fear.

A small presence drew close.

“Karsilla, are you scared?”
“…Yeah.”

I stroked Karsilla’s head as she clung to my side, and she gave a surprisingly honest answer. I knew Karsilla was afraid of the dark, but she wouldn’t usually give such a straightforward answer. Does that mean the darkness here is that unpleasantly dense?

“It’s okay. We’re all together, so it’s not scary at all~”
“It is scary.”
“……”

Is she really going through puberty?

‘In the game, there’s no great danger here. No need to be nervous… Damn it, I’m judging everything based on the game again. Get a grip.’

Just in case, I gathered my divine power and moved forward.
Despite the three of us emitting bright light with our divine power, the dense darkness that had settled around us still lingered, showing just how vast the interior of the temple was.

“If we just move around aimlessly like this, we’ll get lost. Let’s go back to the temple entrance and move along the wall.”

Returning to the entrance and walking along the wall, a new sight appeared.

“There’s… something drawn on the wall?”

Irian’s small voice.
Despite the passage of time, the pure white temple walls were covered with murals that seemed to depict something. Each mural was so large that it was hard to take it all in at once. When I raised a divine power orb high, the scene that became clear was overwhelming.

“Surely they didn’t draw on all the walls…?”

Endless murals stretched along the walls of the temple, which were so high that the ceiling was invisible and so wide that the end was nowhere in sight. The massive murals, densely covering every wall that the light touched, were enough to make even me, who was used to modern civilization, feel exhausted. How many people did they have to grind to make this possible?

“It looks like… they’re depicting a war.”

As Diana said, who had been scanning the murals, they seemed to depict the process of fighting something. People who appeared to be lords or rulers were having meetings, armies were being called up, and knights and mages were appearing.

‘It’s like the prologue of a game.’

Just by walking along the wall and looking at the murals, I could tell that they were preparing for war. And if it wasn’t exaggerated, it was a war of an unimaginably massive scale.

‘This wasn’t… in the game.’

Was it simply that I missed it, or was it that murals weren’t important enough to be mentioned… or was it something different from the game?

A sense of unease suddenly surged.

No matter how much I resolved not to blindly trust my game knowledge, my greatest weapon was still my game knowledge. All my plans were based on the numerous pieces of information I had obtained from the game, which I used to envision the future.
That’s why, even though I always thought I should separate the game from the present, I was inevitably bound to the game, a contradiction.
Could it be… that I led the group into danger? What if this place is more dangerous than I expected?

‘No. Even if it’s dangerous, the group’s current level is fine. Surely the Demon King won’t appear from the beginning… Shit, it’s not actually going to appear, is it?’

The group’s atmosphere seemed to have become too heavy, so we decided to take a break.
We sat around the divine power orb that was emitting bright light and chatted while drinking hot soup, which calmed my mind.

I was too tense.
Sixteen years in the boring but stable Great Temple of Hespote in the Holy Nation. Even though it was a game world where I had to defeat the Demon King, I had become accustomed to peace for 16 years.
The pressure of being at the beginning of a journey where the main quest had started, other players had appeared, and I had to become the leader of the group and defeat the Demon King might have been subconsciously weighing on my mind.

I am strong.

Not only because of the ‘Saint’ trait, but my current stats are at the level of the mid-game, and a well-developed mid-game at that. On top of that, I have Diana and Irian, who are more talented than me. Even Karsilla, who is surprisingly physically capable, would be able to play an active role in the early stages of the game.
As long as I don’t lose my mind and go off the rails, there’s no need to be overly nervous. I need to trust my abilities and the abilities of the group.

I regained my composure and set off again. As I examined the murals with a more stable mind than before, I finally noticed something strange.

“Something’s weird. Is this how wars are usually fought?”
“No. This isn’t a war between people.”

As expected of a knight, Irian, who was the most knowledgeable about military affairs in the group, stared at a part of the mural and answered. Following his gaze, I saw a lot of people who looked like priests, piling up weapons like mountains and surrounding them, seemingly praying.

“They’re blessing the weapons. If the painting is accurate… they seem to be standing in a certain pattern.”
“It’s a divine barrier. An ancient method of amplifying blessings.”
“What on earth were they fighting…?”

Diana’s knowledgeable answer only made my questions grow. Gathering so many troops to fight demons? That’s only necessary if the gates of hell open and hordes of demons pour out.
Since the Church took over the world, they’ve been hunting down hidden demons, but it’s extremely rare for them to mobilize the army.
This kind of scene… I’d only seen it in the late game.
I hadn’t reached the late game many times, so my memory was hazy. Why did they gather the army like this back then?

“……Demon King’s revival?”

The group’s attention was drawn to the words I muttered without realizing it. Diana and Irian’s eyes were wide open. Ah… now that I think about it, the final goal is to defeat the Demon King, but I hadn’t said anything about it.
Diana and Irian don’t know that the Demon King will be revived. Cha Hyewon, the player, would naturally know, but other than the two of us, no one in this game world would expect the Demon King to be revived.
I have to tell them… but if they ask how I know the Demon King will be revived, I’m at a loss for an answer. Actually, this is a game, and I came here after defeating the Demon King in the game?… I can’t say that.

“Wait. Over there, in the mural. What’s that?”

Thanks to his excellent physical abilities, Irian, who could see through the darkness even with faint light, pointed to a part of the mural far away and went to examine it. Curious, I followed Irian, and there was a strange picture.

“…A man. A man descending from the sky? What is this? Is he looking around? And… he’s being captured by demons… and tortured?”

The mural’s story was suddenly becoming strange. What kind of astral development is this?

“This is frustrating.”

The moment Irian, who had been grumbling, lightly kicked the wall, the floor began to shake.

“What did you touch!”
“I, I just kicked the wall… Whoa!?”

The shaking floor collapsed. Irian, even in his armor, quickly kicked off the collapsing floor and launched himself into the air. Irian, who had jumped up in a hurry, didn’t notice, but I, who was watching, could clearly see it. The numerous stones falling on his head.

Whether they were pouring from the pitch-black ceiling or some magical combination, I didn’t know, but Irian, who was looking down, didn’t seem to notice at all. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to avoid it since he had just kicked off the floor.

‘Shit.’

I activated my physical abilities using the buffs I had prepared in advance. I could feel the muscles in my legs tensing up with power. I jumped up with all my might, grabbed Irian, who was just about to fall, and deployed a shield. Numerous stones and piles of sand hit the shield, making a loud noise, but the shield, created with immense divine power, wouldn’t be pierced by mere falling debris.
The falling stones and dirt were no problem. They just felt threatening because of the loud noise they made as they hit the shield.

The problem was… that we were falling through the gaping hole in the floor.

“Yurian!!”

Diana’s cry faded into the distance. At the same time, Diana’s divine power, which was emitting bright light in the darkness, was also quickly moving away. …How long are we going to fall?

The only good thing was that Irian, who was suddenly in my arms and flustered, quickly grasped the situation and, instead of me, who was busy blocking the falling stones, channeled his divine power towards the opposite side, where we were falling.

The divine power orb that shot out into the darkness illuminated the place where we were falling, and he also seemed to be pouring out his maximum divine power, as white flames erupted all over his body, and a shield enveloped half of him. Combined with the shield I had created, we were trapped in a round sphere and endlessly falling to the ground, which reminded me of a scene from The Lord of the Rings that I had enjoyed in my youth.

‘It’s similar to the scene where Gandalf falls in the Mines of Moria. At least I’m holding a girl instead of a Balrog, so that’s a win, I guess.’
Diana and Karsilla wouldn’t have been caught up in this, right? They were following far behind, so they probably weren’t. I’m not worried about Diana, but I’m worried about Karsilla. Even while falling in real time, I’m worried about our kids, so I guess I’ve become a dad.

Thud!

Soon after, a tremor that shook my whole body and a sharp pain hit me, and my consciousness faded. Not again, a fainting ending?

* * *

The moment I regained consciousness, I quickly got up.
How much time has passed?

“You’re late.”

I was relieved by Irian’s curt voice, but then I noticed the divine power that was faintly emitting light and blocking the top. A slightly translucent thin membrane was floating in the air, seemingly blocking something. What on earth… stones?
Only then did the situation become clear. It seemed that he had been blocking the pile of stones that had poured down from above with a shield. Irian was staring at the air with a face that hadn’t even wiped away the cold sweat.

“Are you okay? You don’t look good… How long have you been maintaining it?”
“About… 5 minutes? It seems there are more stones piled up above than I thought. It’s hard to maintain the shield.”

Just by looking at the beads of sweat dripping down his slender jawline, I could tell how much Irian was struggling. This foolish guy should have woken me up, why was he just standing there?

“I’ll reinforce it, you rest.”

The moment I gathered my divine power, the cracks that had formed in the white membrane that Irian was maintaining spread throughout the entire area in an instant. The white membrane, which had been maintained in a round shape, was visibly shrinking in real time.

As soon as I reinforced Irian’s shield with my own, his divine power disappeared. I felt a heavy pressure, and the immense divine power was draining in real time, which meant that the pile of stones above was considerable.

“It seems like a lot more has piled up than I thought. It’ll be impossible to get out through the top.”

Looking up at the pile of stones stacked on top of the white light-emitting membrane, I felt a sense of hopelessness. How are we going to get out?

“I agree.”

Irian, who had been panting since earlier, showed no signs of calming down, so I glanced at him. He still had a pale complexion and beads of cold sweat on his face. Why does he still look so tired? Considering Irian’s physical abilities and recovering divine power, he should be fine by now.

“You… what’s that blood?”
“I got a little hurt.”