Around the time I was carving the letters into the fountain pen, Elly and I had this conversation.
'But what do we do if the weapon gets smashed or the divine power runs dry?'
-Recite a sutra or something, I suppose.
'Does a sutra even mean anything here? You're right beside me. And this is a different world?'
-Change the sutra.
'Sorry?'
-Mix it up roughly and recite it in the Elysian style. I have a feeling-type feeling it'll work. You've done plenty of praying over five years anyway.
“...Thus it is said in the Book of Light. The radiance that covers heaven and earth abides in stillness, yet its will is cast over all things.”
And so out came the exorcism sutra, Elysian edition.
'Closer to a prayer than a sutra, admittedly.'
I took the form of a sutra that borrows a god's power exactly as it was and converted it into a prayer that could draw on Elysian's divine power.
Recited without a holy power crystal formed yet, the effect of drawing divine power would be very slight.
'But we're inside the labyrinth.'
The labyrinth Elysian created was full of divine power as well as holy power. However much a demon had appeared and filled this space with unpleasant demonic energy, the labyrinth's essence had not changed.
“In pure ground there is no spirit of darkness, and in a world where the Sacred Flame dwells the unrighteous cannot stand.”
Just as air pressure flows from high to low. Energy, too, moves easily from high density to low.
“The spirit of evil, by nature, feigns a hollow light and disorders the great way—”
Which means? Drawing divine power inside a labyrinth packed with sacred energy might be easier than expected.
“—but the divinity of the source joins in concord, and the messenger of darkness shall fall before the truth.”
'All I have to do is open the channel.'
Divine power gathered, twisting the space full of demonic energy. There was a tssk, tsss sound, as though the demonic energy were recoiling.
-It's working!
I heard Elly cheering beside me. At the same moment, the letters on the fountain pen in my hand began to darken and shine.
“The promise of holy light shall silence even the river of death!”
[-Wh-what is that!]
What do you think it is, you little wretch.
'You're f*cked, that's what.'
At the plainly changed atmosphere, even Lumiel, who had kept his eyes buried in the ground, slowly raised his head.
The letters on the fountain pen were past shining and had begun scattering light in every direction. It shook, as though the divine power that could be packed into a small fountain pen had nearly reached its limit.
I gave Lumiel's shoulder a light tap and transferred a little of the Sacred Flame he was holding onto the tip of the pen.
FWOOSH!
The finishing touch. The dragon's eye, dotted. The divine power gathered in the fountain pen and the Sacred Flame set off a synergy and blazed up larger still.
All preparations complete. The prayer had a single verse left.
'Boys. I'm counting on you.'
-Yes sir!
-Hup!
The spirits clustered thickly onto the fountain pen. That takes care of the missing thrust.
Right then. Take aim? Fire!
SHOOM—!
Leaving my hand, the fountain pen flew with a thread trailing from its end, as though swimming through the air.
[-You think I would fall to a thing like that!]
The black wings beat. Wind gathered around them and a fierce squall of demonic energy rose like a whirlwind. For an attack thrown together in a panic, it was savage.
“Urk!”
“Aagh!”
Fine scratches opened on the children's faces. The squall of demonic energy turned into blades and sliced skin.
Even so, I smiled. Because I had no confidence.
'No confidence of losing.'
With my spirit-sight open, my eyes could see 'everything.' Down to the flow of demonic energy between the whirling gusts. If you can see the path, the rest is easy.
A light flick of the holy power thread turned the connected fountain pen. The thrust added by the spirits' wingbeats was a bonus.
Ignoring the whirlwind of demonic energy, the fountain pen was drawn toward the demon's face as though out for a stroll.
[-Wh-what is this!]
Unable to stop a single small fountain pen, the demon's voice shook with confusion.
“Elysian, wellspring of light, shall open the way and remove all darkness!”
SHUNK!
[-Guaaaagh!]
The instant the fountain pen punched through the largest eyeball, the final verse of the prayer was completed.
FWAAAAASH!
The Sacred Flame fixed to the pen's tip blazed up explosively. It swallowed the demon in an instant and spread.
[-Impossible, this is impossible! That I, to a thing like this...!]
“Stop talking and hurry up and dissolve.”
[-Khh, damn it! Damn it! This cursed flame! Kraaagh!]
The more the demon thrashed, the more tenaciously the divine power burned, erasing the demon's form without mercy.
[-Ahh... Great Varnek. Forgive my insufficiency...]
'Varnek?'
In the end the demon became a handful of ash, leaving only that one meaningful last remark.
Three seconds, from start to ash. I retrieved the fountain pen from the floor and turned around.
“Did we get him!”
“Hey!”
That damned brat. That is the first thing out of his mouth the moment our eyes meet. Did nobody tell him that is the forbidden line?
“Wh-what! What!”
Surely that forbidden line doesn't work in another world too.
A single gust of wind blew and scattered the ash. Among the ash heap where the demon had fallen, blackly clotted demonic energy was visible.
'Damn it! Lumiel!'
Why is a bad feeling never wrong. Of course. Of course. That line was not to be said.
The ominously clotting demonic energy poured into me before I could do a thing about it.
“Khh!”
For a moment my vision was blotted out by darkness.
“...Young Lian!”
“Hey, hey! Are you all right?”
“Khhh... hm?”
What is this. I feel completely fine?
It was true that the demonic energy had covered my face and infiltrated my body. It was only that it was quietly settling itself somewhere inside.
'The demonic energy is behaving?'
-Lian! Are you okay?
'Yes. Better than expected?'
The demonic energy was huddled in a corner, settling itself in a tidy little cluster. Its being quiet is a relief, at least. But it's suspicious. Very, very suspicious.
'Could I be a hybrid who can use both holy power and demonic energy?'
-No chance. Demonic energy is anathema to me too.
Yes, I imagine so. Then what on earth is this phenomenon.
'No idea.'
If a problem comes up, Elysian or the Sacred Flame will handle it. I'm getting baptized shortly anyway.
It does feel like having a time bomb tucked inside my body. Unpleasant, but what can you do. For now there was no method available.
Whatever else, the labyrinth mission was over. That demon just now presumably wasn't part of the mission, but what business is that of mine. Take out a real demon that broke into the labyrinth and they ought to count the labyrinth mission cleared too.
'Ugh, it really does put a lot of strain on the body.'
Reciting an unfamiliar prayer to draw in divine power left my body slumping like water-logged cotton. The difference in bodily strain between using holy power and drawing on divine power really is night and day.
In Seo Utak's body, a demon of that level would have been fairly easy. It's only that I'm a five-year-old candidate now; the winged demon was not an enormously strong opponent.
'I really do desperately want a steel pipe.'
Even if a shaman isn't a demon specialist, tenderize one thoroughly with a steel pipe and there is no demon that holds up.
Tired as I already was, feeling twice as fatigued because of the demonic energy, I glared at Lumiel once more.
“A-ahem. Hey, I asked if you were all right.”
“Yeah. Seems it was nothing much.”
“S-still, you should tell His Eminence about it later...”
“Mm, I will. Thanks for worrying, Corin.”
But the one voice that ought to be making the biggest fuss is missing?
I turned my head about to check and saw Adrian sprawled out on the floor. As my head turned, the other two seemed to notice as well and their eyes fixed on Adrian.
“...”
“...”
“...A-Adrian! O-open your eyes!”
Corin closed on Adrian's side in an instant and shook him as though wailing.
Lumiel, who had been watching my expression, sidled over to Adrian too and began slapping his cheeks.
'Haa... what a shambles.'
Now how do I clean this up and get out?
Fatigue rolled over me abruptly.
***
“Still not open...!”
While Lian was struggling with a demon inside. Naturally, the arena was in an uproar.
For some reason the portal to the labyrinth would not connect. Even with two Cardinals working at it.
“This is plainly an anomaly! A demon infiltrating the labyrinth in the first place!”
“I know. It is an impossible situation.”
Unless there is a collaborator on the inside.
Leilaik swallowed the words. There were many eyes watching.
“I will help as well.”
Archbishop Nagrim Hilloriven joined Leilaik and Cardinal Dalopes, who were pouring holy power into a holy magic circle.
Nagrim had come for the baptism, the last event of the day.
“How is the broadcast being handled?”
“They've turned the screens to the other groups. Fortunately the Rondoa house's child is putting on a strong showing, so they say no complaints are coming from the crowd.”
A black-winged demon was an alien sight by anyone's reckoning, so measures had been taken to keep the citizens from seeing it. Letting it out that a demon had invaded the labyrinth the god created would only turn public sentiment ugly.
“Everyone stop for a moment and look at this.”
Lilliad approached the holy magic circle holding a small panel. The screen was transmitting with heavy noise across it. The influence of the demonic energy.
Inside the panel, Lian could be seen gripping a fountain pen and murmuring something over and over. The sound was buried in static and hard to make out, but roughly what he was doing could be understood.
“Is that... a prayer?”
“It seems so.”
“To recite a prayer calmly even in that situation...”
It was a capacity to handle a situation that beggared belief in a five-year-old.
“Hold out a little longer...!”
Leilaik poured still more holy power into the holy magic circle with bloodshot eyes. The holy power seeping into the circle was blocked by something and could not construct the circle properly.
Lilliad, too, was fixing the panel with a cold stare.
That was when the anomaly occurred on screen. Lian transferred the Sacred Flame onto the tip of his fountain pen and threw it at the winged demon.
Even amid the raging storm of demonic energy, the fountain pen shot serenely toward the demon.
'That is...!'
Something like a shining thread at the fountain pen's end caught Leilaik's eye. He had seen something similar to that in the past.
Yes, he had confirmed a similar phenomenon when he watched Lian dispatch a low-grade demon.
Despair turned at once into hope and joy. It was not, of course, an expectation to place on a child of only five who had not yet forged even one holy power crystal.
But Leilaik had already witnessed the precedent!
“It will connect shortly! Everyone stand ready to go in without delay!”
“Cardinal Ludersk. What do you...?”
“Have faith.”
Lian did seem to be doing something. But he was still a candidate, and far too young.
Cardinal Dalopes looked at the firm trust in his eyes and wondered at it. But a little later.
“Th-this cannot be...!”
When he confirmed the sight of Lian's fountain pen lodging precisely in the demon's eyeball and being engulfed by the Sacred Flame, his eyes blinked over and over, unable to believe it.
“No, how is that possible? Young Lian does not yet have a holy power crystal, does he?”
“Our Lian is rather full of talents. Ahem.”
“That is not an explanation I can accept...”
“You will have heard the story that our Lian exterminated a demon once before. On that occasion too, something similar...”
“Dear.”
Lilliad cut Leilaik off with a broad smile.
“Let us go in first.”
“Mm...”
Two Cardinals, one Archbishop, and others besides went in together through the passage connected to the labyrinth.
***
And now.
“Lian!”
I was scooped up into Father's arms. My feet dangled and swung in the air.
“Are you all right, is anything hurt!”
“I'm fine, Father.”
“Khh... I should have come in sooner!”
Father, having spotted the small scratch on my cheek, looked about ready to weep.
'Apart from being tired I'm completely fine...'
-Wow, Lian, your dad makes even blubbering look like a painting.
'What on earth does that mean.'
Elly's gushing gets a firm no-feeding.
More to the point, was Father always this much of a teenage girl...? Mother, calmly patting his shoulder beside him, looked far more dependable.
The situation was cleaned up quickly. Father and Cardinal Dalopes seemed to be staying behind to check further.
The remaining children were sent back to the arena.
'We're allowed to just leave like that?'
When an actual demon showed up?
The question resolved itself soon enough. First of all, the arena I had assumed would be in chaos was calmer than expected.
It turned out our MC Bishop had pulled off one hell of a desperate arse-show. And the footage of me dispatching the demon had been subtly altered.
'Why did they turn the winged demon into a black bear?'
By somebody's editing skill, the winged demon had been changed into a black bear demon.
Of all things, a black bear. It put me in mind of my previous life for no good reason and soured my mood.
My mood aside, the editing itself was superb enough to recall the CG of my previous life. Thanks to the clever editing and the host's lethal spin, the demon's appearance never became known to the citizens.
The real problem, however, arose somewhere else entirely.
“Huk!”
“Hkk...!”
“......”
I raised my head and looked up at three pairs of numinous wings.
An angel had descended, right on my turn for baptism.
Look here, angel, your timing is terrible!