To be honest, I had held some degree of hope.
‘The apostles of War are specialized in brainwashing too.’
To some degree, I wondered if at least a few of them had been forced by brainwashing to commit such horrific acts.
In other words.
“Capture him!”
I had been ignoring human malice.
‘There are none.’
Among them, not one had the Evil God of War’s divine power discovered in their head.
Instead, War’s divine power could be felt richly in their hearts.
What that meant was clear.
GRIND—
These bastards were all in their right minds.
They had been about to bind children, use them as shields for war, and raise a war to turn Rakar into a wasteland, all while perfectly sane.
[Mm...... Even I was not that bad during war.]
If an evil god from the utterly uncivilized ancient era said that much, then it was hard to view them as human.
Then here was the question.
Did I really need to give things that were not human a chance to repent?
The answer was “no.”
CRACK—!
I crushed the heads of the bastards who approached one by one, as carefully as possible.
So thoroughly that none of the leniency from before, where I merely broke their limbs, could be found.
‘If only I had just a little more divine power left.’
I would have sent them off with the greatest pain possible.
It was simply regrettable that I could not.
“Eek!”
Among them were some whose hands trembled as they gritted their teeth and tried not to attack me.
“After what you did to the children.”
Seeing them feel fear as they watched their comrades die in front of them.
It was laughable.
Just what difference was there between them and those children?
Even while thinking such stray thoughts, my arms and legs moved busily.
“Eek!”
Why was I busy?
“Aaaaaagh!”
Because I had to crack those bastards’ heads, of course.
“Come at me.”
This is the express train to hell, bastards.
SHRRRRK—!
I spread threads made of golden divine power and drove the flying swords into the ground.
“Hah!”
I seized the arm of an evil god worshiper who approached and reached out, then slammed him straight down onto the ground.
BOOM—!
At that sound, I kicked off the ground reflexively.
“Huh.”
BANG—!
A cannonball that flew in a moment later pulverized the tree behind me.
“Now they have cannons too?”
As if to prove they were believers of the God of War, from far away they were firing cannonballs made of divine power.
‘Should I be glad there are no city walls?’
If there had been something like that, even for me, it would have been impossible to fight while protecting the walls too.
‘......Though it is impossible now too.’
I felt my body’s trembling growing worse in real time.
But I paid it no mind.
CRACK—!
I crushed every one that came.
“Hoo......”
I exhaled.
Between that breath, I inhaled the blood-red divine power spread throughout the world.
ZZZZZT—
I felt my body grow hot.
‘Ah.’
Blood Flame. Had she said it was not simply blood, but Blood Flame? Was that why I felt a certain degree of heat?
“Kill him! I said kill that bastard!”
The bastard pinned beneath my foot blabbered like that.
“How annoying.”
Even while trapped under me, the bastard was somehow grabbing my leg with his hand.
SQUEEZE—
I gripped the hand holding my leg tightly.
Damn it. To think the hand I was holding belonged to a bastard like this.
It felt deeply disgusting.
“Uh.”
The bastard whose hand was held let out a foolish sound.
CRACK—!
“Aaaaaagh!”
By putting strength into my hand, I completely shattered the bones of his hand.
“......”
Even so, as if unwilling to let go, the bastard wrapped his arm around my leg instead of using his hand.
“Huh.”
That loyalty. That effort.
‘If he had used it not for an evil god, but for himself.’
How much could this person have changed?
CRACK—!
The bastard’s skull crumbled far too easily beneath my mace.
‘I’ll never know now.’
Rather, there were bastards who made effort precisely because it was this kind of thing.
Bastards who lived not for themselves, but for the misfortune of others.
“Kill him!”
I gathered divine power in my hand. The gathered divine power soon became a single red-gold light.
I wrapped that divine power around the mace.
“Stay right there.”
This was the forest of monsters, where not a single person would pass.
Unlike the sewer, where I could not use a giant miracle.
“Uh...... uh......!”
It did not matter how destructive it was.
The mace, enlarged by divine power, was already difficult to call a mace.
The head of the mace was no different from a giant star made of blood-red gold.
And the weapon itself had become unbelievably massive.
“R-run away!”
At the sight, the evil god worshipers panicked and fled.
“Do not run!”
Behind the evil god worshipers, the apostle was cutting down the bastards who fled.
“Even if you die! Die on the battlefield! That is loyalty to Lady Resha, God of War!”
While calmly saying that, the apostle of War was comfortably moving the believers from behind.
Because in war, the ones who benefited were always those above.
“Hey. Damned apostle. Just come out yourself. Don’t pointlessly let those bugs die.”
“Overwhelm him.”
Huh. He was saying that even after seeing the giant mace in my hand?
“Overwhelm him!”
At the apostle’s words, some bastards charged in.
‘Their eyes are strange.’
Their appearance was no different from madmen, and at a glance, they were clearly not in their right minds.
As though they had forgotten the primal emotion called fear.
“Insane bastards.”
That was their specialty. Erase fear for the sake of war. Erase emotion. Erase guilt.
Just as they were not human in my eyes, in their eyes, ordinary people—those who tilled fields, butchered pigs, and did business—were not human.
In their eyes, ordinary people were insects, and the only humans were themselves.
To feel guilt or fear over killing insects and fighting insects was unnecessary.
Of course.
“You insects.”
I, too, saw them as insects all the same.
No, seeing them as insects was still far too generous.
I swung the giant blood-red star toward the evil god worshipers.
BOOM—!
Dozens of evil god worshipers were sent flying by that single strike of the mace.
‘It’s fine.’
I had only swept away pests.
“Hoo......”
I breathed.
I did not know how many times I had exhaled like that.
‘It is a habit now.’
Doing this...... at least. At least it kept my mind intact.
It let me think of them as ones who were allowed to die.
[Apostle. You are distracting me. Just wipe them all out at once.]
Whether she knew how I felt or not, the bastard’s voice buzzed in my ear.
[You can do it, can you not?]
“......I can’t. I don’t have much divine power left.”
I was even spreading a veil of blood over each of the children tied up there.
There was no way I had that much divine power left......
[Lie.]
“......?”
This was true, though?
[Even with little left, you can sweep them away all at once. You can make the mace bigger, can you not?]
“Bigger than this?”
Even Grandpa Harkan could only manage up to around this size.
“Really? I didn’t know. This is my first time properly putting divine power into a weapon.”
[Ah.]
So it could grow bigger than this?
‘Even Sir Slan’s maximum is around this, so I thought mine would be too.’
If I made it bigger than this, well......
“It should become bigger than the trees in the forest, at least?”
[Forget trees. It should grow larger than that thing called a monster sleeping over there.]
That much?
[Try it.]
“I was going to anyway.”
I put divine power into the mace.
No, such a gentle phrase would not express it.
Yes. Rather than putting it in, the phrase “slamming it in” was more correct.
“Save...... save me!”
I saw an evil god worshiper with his lower body blown away, crawling.
“I don’t want to die......”
As I walked, I stepped firmly on the remaining upper half of his body.
“Kgh!”
“If you wanted to live, you shouldn’t have done this.”
You should have committed sins that could be repented for.
You should have known shame over your sins.
If suffering like this was horrible when it happened to you, you should have thought it would be the same for others too.
I wrapped divine power around my trembling foot. What came after was simple.
“Wai......!”
CRACK—!
And so the bastard’s head was crushed even further.
“......”
Blood flowed from the crushed skull.
The sensation of stepping on someone’s head and crushing it was absolutely not pleasant.
“Eek!”
I could immediately tell the state of the bastards.
‘They are afraid.’
......You are? You, who tried to kill people and raise a war, fear death?
It was ridiculous. That was simply how it felt.
“Anyone else want to come at me?”
With those words, I withdrew the divine power gathered in the mace.
There was no particular reason.
Of course, the reason was not cheap pity.
Showing them pity would not be courtesy toward the ordinary people who had died.
I simply did not want to remain any longer with these things that were not even human. That was all.
‘It also feels like I’m a bit short on divine power......’
It was indeed difficult with a body that had not recovered properly.
[Lie. You simply do not want to kill them.]
“Drop your weapons.”
I ignored the words that reached my ear and continued speaking.
At that, no sooner had my words fallen than someone dropped his sword and shield to the ground.
SLASH—
Of course, that person’s head was severed in an instant by the apostle of War.
“Do you feel fear! Such a thing! Is completely useless in war!”
“Then you come in, bastard. Since you don’t have fear.”
No.
There was no need for that.
Because I could go in.
I wrapped divine power around my legs. The divine power forged in red gold increased my speed.
BANG—!
“Kgh!”
“Huh.”
He blocked this?
“For War, you are still an apostle, it seems.”
You are the apostle of Resha, whose pure martial force is the weakest among all gods, and yet you blocked this?
“Hoo......”
The bastard exhaled. The smell of blood and steel mixed and flowed into him.
“Aha.”
I understood. How he had managed to block it despite being merely an apostle of War.
“You are quite loved by your evil god, aren’t you?”
Gods chose apostles. And even among those apostles, there were those a god especially favored.
“Our god is not evil! She will purify the world! Through war! A world without such prejudice! A world of equality......!”
“Bullshit.”
Remove prejudice and make everyone equal? Through war?
“You truly think war is something beautiful?”
A thing where blood is shed and lives are harmed. A thing where even those who survive afterward cannot escape its pain.
“Our god makes all things equal......!”
What the bastard was saying was the same as this.
“For the sake of one disabled person missing an arm, you want to make everyone in the world disabled.”
What Resha wanted to create was hell. Nothing more.
“Let us end this. I do not want to look at a bastard like you any longer.”
Because I wanted to end those children’s nightmare as quickly as possible.
“Urgh......!”
The bastard, who had been sent flying far away, gripped his shield and sword again and glared at me.
“Does glaring at me give you an answer? Did that fine evil god of yours write the solution on my face?”
“You bastard......!”
BOOM!
My mace, which had swollen in an instant, sent the bastard flying far away.
“Kgh!”
He smashed into the wall...... no, into that monster’s back, and collapsed.
‘Even in the middle of this, that monster is not waking up.’
Just how much did it sleep? Or was something of this level merely cute to it?
“Bastard......!”
“You bastard. How dare you glare and act up like that? Can’t you open your eyes more nicely?”
It made me want to gouge those eyes out.
“Hey.”
Of course, I had no intention of doing that.
Because I had promised.
Absolutely.
“You will beg me to please kill you.”
I had promised I would not let an apostle bastard die comfortably.