“What is happening!”
The sewers of Rakar. A new room that should not have existed there.
“One holy knight has broken in!”
“If it’s only that much, take the children and deal with him!”
“Yes!”
The believer answered confidently and left the room.
“Mister. What is all this?”
“It is nothing.”
Kai and the boy merely stood blankly in that room.
“Brother. This place feels strange.”
“Still...... that person brought us here, so shouldn’t it be fine?”
Trust in the literal sense of the word.
They were showing a representative example of it.
“But mister.”
“Hmm?”
“Didn’t you say Lina was here too?”
At Kai’s question, the deputy bishop frowned.
“Tsk. Why would the apostle bring this bastard......”
“Pardon?”
“Do not worry. She is over there.”
At those words, Kai’s expression brightened at once.
“Where?”
After that, the deputy bishop decided to simply ignore him.
“Kai. You must not be too rude.”
“Brother......”
“Look. This is an important moment.”
Only then did Kai look around.
“......?”
As though he finally noticed something strange, Kai’s eyes widened.
“What is this?”
The walls were smeared with blood.
“Brother, this place is stran......”
Kai’s words ended there.
“Stop chattering already.”
The deputy bishop kicked Kai just like that.
“Cough!”
It hurt.
‘What is this?’
What? Why? I trusted them. That’s why I followed them. Why?
Faith obtained through falsehood.
‘Why did I follow them in the first place?’
Was broken so simply by a single kick.
‘Isn’t this...... strange?’
Why do we trust someone who beats people like that?
Why are they called apostles?
‘Why......?’
Why are there so many strange things in this room?
At the center of the room was an altar.
No matter how one looked at it, it was an altar.
‘......Brother.’
Kai moved his lips. But no voice came out.
It was because he had been kicked too hard.
“Kai!”
Perhaps his thoughts reached the boy.
The boy approached the fallen boy.
“Are you all right?”
I’m not all right. Brother.
“What is this......?”
The boy spoke that far, then said nothing more. He merely looked around.
Only then did the boy smell the blood scent.
“Urgh.”
The boy retched.
“Tsk. When is that bastard coming?”
Only then could the boy truly understand.
“Brother......”
“Yeah. Kai. Brother is here.”
“It’s strange. Why...... Why is this happening? Why are we here?”
The boy knew it too. This was strange.
“......Strange?”
However, the boy desperately ignored that oddness and tightly gripped Kai’s hand.
“Look at Lina. She’s lying down just fine. That means she’s comfortable.”
But Kai could tell.
‘Sweat......’
Because the boy’s hand was drenched in sweat.
“Do not worry. So do not go to Lina either. Just stay here. Brother will handle it.”
That sight was obviously not normal.
“Lina......”
“No. Do not call her. You do not want to wake Lina, do you? Kai, you get terribly angry too when I wake you up while you’re sleeping.”
“Still......”
“Please...... do not.”
The boy gripped Kai’s shoulders tightly.
“You must not question anything. Understood?”
In a way, what the boy was doing could be called brainwashing.
“This place is not strange. Just think that way for a little while. Just a very little while.”
But that faith did not come from falsehood.
“It is only a bad dream. Just for a little while.”
With trembling hands, the boy stroked Kai’s head.
“Okay......”
“I will...... I will handle it......”
The boy groped along the floor.
It would be better if he could grab anything.
“......”
But contrary to his wish, there was nothing on the floor.
No, strictly speaking, there was.
The deputy bishop had told the boy they were sleeping people.
That they were merely asleep.
It was not wrong.
Because those there were sleeping a final sleep from which they would never wake.
“......”
Why had he not known?
If he had looked only a little, just a little, he would have known.
Why had he simply believed and let it pass?
‘An evil god.’
Only then did the boy think of that holy knight.
The delinquent who had suddenly appeared after breaking down the house door.
And then suddenly apologized like a strange person.
And the one Karix had been searching for.
‘They are evil god worshipers.’
Having thought that far, the boy’s hand trembled.
With that trembling hand, he stood up.
“......”
The only thing in his hand was a single stone.
‘Can I do it?’
No.
‘I have to.’
The possibility was infinitely close to zero, but he had no choice.
Because he had something.
‘At least Kai.’
Something he had to protect.
WHACK!
The boy approached the deputy bishop and struck his head with the stone.
Blood flowed from his struck head.
“......How pathetic.”
He turned around.
CRACK!
“Kgh!”
A fist struck the boy directly in the stomach.
“If you are a sacrifice, then behave like one.”
“Grk......”
No words came out.
“......Fu......ck.”
A curse unlike a boy escaped him.
Even when he had been abandoned in the back alleys.
Even when he had lived without a name afterward.
Even when he had taken in children in the same situation as him.
He had never spat such a curse before.
‘Why did it end up like this?’
There had been one reason he had taken the medicine when they approached him.
Because he had a wish.
The simple wish that he no longer wanted to live off others’ things, that he wanted to live with what was his own.
Because he wanted to live with what was his own now.
They had said that wish would be solved simply by taking medicine, and it truly had been solved.
Back then, he had thought God had helped him.
“If you are a sacrifice, then behave like one.”
But.
“You worm.”
A wish was a wish because it could not be fulfilled.
And a god’s gaze was not fair.
‘It hurts.’
The deputy bishop was stepping on the fallen boy.
‘Help me.’
The boy’s mouth did not move.
‘Someone.’
One who had lived in a world with gods, in a place where he never received a god’s gaze.
‘God.’
Sadly, even at the very end, wished for a god.
BANG!
“Deputy Bishop!”
“......What is it?”
Only when the believer who had first entered came back in did the beating stop.
“That holy knight......!”
“Did you deal with him?”
“He defeated them all and is advancing!”
Ironically.
“Where is the Apostle of the Sun! Has he still not arrived!”
The one who reached the one who wished for a god.
BOOM!
“You fucking bastards.”
Was not a god.
“Do not even think of going to the Chief God’s side.”
It was merely a ruffian holding a mace.
***
These bastards.
Corpses lined the floor, and Kai and the boy were covered in wounds.
“You’re really pissing me off.”
“Destroy him!”
Of all things they could have touched.
CRACK!
“Ack!”
They touched children?
“Does it hurt?”
I threw the mace, and it lodged in the body of the smallest bastard.
“That child is younger than you lot, so how much do you think he hurt?”
“He threw away his weapon! Kill him!”
The bastard swung his sword. Dodging that much only required lowering my body tightly.
WHOOSH!
The wind made by the sword lightly brushed my hair.
“Uh.”
Before the bastard could retrieve his sword, I dug inside his guard.
THWACK!
I made the features of the bastard, who had not even properly understood the situation, very free-spirited.
Then I grabbed him by the collar and flipped him backward.
CRACKLE!
“Kgh?!”
Thanks to that, I could block the miracle shaped like lightning that flew from behind.
“Dep...... Deputy Bishop......?”
I threw the thoroughly cooked bastard straight at the one called the deputy bishop.
SLASH—
The body of the evil god worshiper I had thrown was split in half like that.
“......No matter how you look at it, isn’t it strange to kill him just because I threw him at you?”
“That thing was going to be nothing but a hindrance anyway!”
Honestly, these insane bastards.
“By the way, are you the deputy bishop here?”
“Shut up!”
The bastard swung his sword down from above.
GRAB—
I caught the sword falling over my head just like that.
“You know.”
Before I could ask anything, more strength entered the sword.
“Grrrgh......!”
He was pressing down with all his strength, but it was utterly meaningless.
“You monster bastard!”
“Cut the bullshit. Where is the bishop?”
“Do you...... think I would tell you that!”
The bastard withdrew his sword and retreated. A moment later, divine power began filling his blade.
“Wow. I can’t do that.”
The divine power contained in the sword soon became a single mass of divine power and shot out from the blade.
CRACK!
[Wow! So that can break like that too?]
A mere mass of divine power like that could be shattered even with a fist, as long as one had overwhelming strength.
“......”
“You’re not done yet.”
Saying that, I ignored the frozen bastard and retrieved the mace that had fallen to the floor.
“Let’s hurry up and finish this. I don’t want to stay in a place like this long.”
Reveal your true nature.
Emotion was soaked in your eyes.
Unmistakable.
‘Fear.’
In “War,” it was the most useless emotion. Therefore.
“God......”
The emotion believers of the Evil God of War offered up to gain power.
Divine power moved around the bastard’s body.
The divine power circulating through his body soon touched his brain.
And then.
“Hah!”
As if the one who had been frightened until moments ago had vanished, the bastard rushed over and swung his sword at my head.
As if he had lost all fear.
Naturally, I could avoid it by slightly turning my body.
[Oh! What is this? Fascinating! His attitude changed all of a sudden!]
Even though I dodged, the bastard’s attack did not stop. This time, I knocked aside the sword he tried to cut diagonally with.
No.
CLANG!
I tried to knock it aside.
“Gaaaaaak!”
The sword and mace tangled together and screamed.
In the end.
“Tsk.”
The one to pull back first was me.
“Graaaaaah!”
The deputy bishop, who had let out a sound like that of a beast rather than a human, rushed in again.
The sword fell toward my left shoulder. I had no particular intention of dodging.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Because there was no need to dodge.
The blood pooled thickly throughout the room wrapped around my body.
Something like War.
“Grrr......!”
Could never pierce the source of all things.
[......How boring. He merely became stronger and lost his reason.]
“You fanatic bastard. In a fight.”
I raised the mace high.
“There is no such thing as fun.”
CRACK!
“Kgh!”
A blood-red star fell straight onto the bastard’s head.