Forging (3)
The road to the destination was much faster than expected.
As I move quickly to my destination, I point out the traps set by the devil worshipers using the dead, and the knights approach and deal with them, then quickly leave their seats to dismantle the traps. Or maybe it was a buff, he was coping well.
However, it was inevitable that the number of troops would decrease little by little, as the personnel to recover the fallen survivors were indispensable.
“Still, there should be no problem reaching the destination at this rate.”
The princess, who was running next to me, said that to me as if I had calculated the speed at which the troops were consumed and the remaining distance.
Stop it, that’s a flag.
Unfortunately, I had to pay the price for not blocking the princess’ flag remarks.
“Is this…?”
“It’s too much…”
In the clearing right in front of the southern tower, we encountered an unprecedented number of fallen people.
And these people, unlike those I had passed by, had not lost their minds, but were mostly dead, or dead, puppets ruled by demon worshipers.
And even a bizarre structure made of corpses in the middle of a clearing.
Everyone stopped and looked at the terrible scene in front of them in a way that was so different from before.
“Oooh…”
Among them, a few people who weren’t immune to the horrific scene turned their heads and vomited.
“Why the hell…?”
“A structure made from corpses that makes people in the church lose their minds. It also seems to enhance their ability to manipulate opponents. And…”
As I looked around, reciting the function of the structure that caught my eye, my words naturally faded.
To be honest, what caught my eye was not that a single demon worshiper could be so powerful by building a structure like that.
“The people here…were not killed while running away.”
The princess, as if she had found the same thing as me, calmly, but with a sad voice, finished the story I hadn’t finished.
As the saying goes, unlike the people I’ve seen so far, the people here didn’t die while running away.
By the time we got here in the first place, very few people had died trying to escape.
I don’t know what his intentions were, but the demon worshiper used his puppets to knock people down so that instead of killing them, he just set a trap for them.
Of course, not a single person died, but there were very few such people, and even that seemed more like an accident, such as being trampled to death by someone else or being crushed by a building collapsing, rather than being killed by a puppet.
So maybe I was a bit caught off guard. I don’t know if it’s for efficiency or for some other reason, but the devil worshipers’ purpose is for the crown, and they don’t care about anything else.
“Fight to keep here…”
It seemed that when the demon worshiper approached this southern tower with his puppets, the people here died fighting to stop the demon worshiper.
It was easy to infer just by looking at the figures lying on the floor in a messy mess. The fact that many of the dead were wearing holy clothes added to the credibility of the inference.
Why would you do such a stupid thing?
That was the first thought that came to my mind.
Most of the priests here are those who can’t even handle attack spells.
There are two main reasons.
In the first place, as Orionism itself has become a structure in which a small number of corrupt high-ranking officials virtually dominate the majority of people, it controls the aggression laws that can be dangerous through subtle brainwashing education, and the number of lower priests who can handle aggression laws is also reduced. After the archbishop incident, I apologized in words, but since the church was actually in my hands, the church did not provide additional support, so there was no additional high-ranking clergy supply and demand, so there were no people in this church who properly handled offensive magic.
As a result, if a church was attacked, it was right for clergy to evacuate with as many people as possible.
They alone, at best, were only able to draw time away from enemies invading the church, and were not capable of repelling them.
Even if my reasoning that I wasn’t interested in those who run away was correct, there was a good chance that I would have survived if I had run away like that.
It was the most reasonable way, and the correct answer, to return with those who had the ability to run away together and sort the situation out, unless the opponent caught him, like Priest Rhys.
But they didn’t do that. They stopped the devil worshipers, and in the end they died without being able to stop them. What was the meaning of those deaths?
What’s even more incomprehensible is that while many of the dead were priests, they weren’t the only ones.
Believers. Not clergy, not living in this church, just ordinary people.
Those people, along with the priests, resisted and died.
Why? Even if the clergy and those who live in the church had a sense that this place was their home and base, and resisted to prevent robbers from breaking into the house, why the hell did the believers?
To them, this would be just a place to pray. It would never be of great value to risk their lives. Even they wouldn’t know what was in the southern tower that they risked their lives to protect.
At the end of my gaze, a corpse came into view.
Teru. It seems that his name was Teru. He was an old man who used tricks to treat his eyes at least as a means to shake the bishop. But from now on, he will be able to face the world with both eyes again, so he has paid the price for cheating. An old man whom I thought lightly and forgot was lying here as a corpse.
My gaze quickly began to scan the pile of sachet.
Ordo was a man who left a strong impression. He just made up an excuse to break the stone statue so as not to cause trouble, but when he suddenly realized his divine power, I was shocked. It was a person who didn’t mean much to me to the extent that I thought about it.
Priest Martin. A person who was committing a small corruption by owning private property when he took over the church. At first, he was somewhat wary, but then, just by mentioning Orion, he used all of his private property as church offerings and resumed his duties as a priest. When I saw that I had started to do everything, I remembered that I laughed blankly, saying that the wall was too small.
Priest Turner. He was especially friendly with the two kids he rescued from the slums. He treated me politely on the other side, but he was a priest of the same age as me, so I felt a subtle inner affinity and talked to him more often than I thought.
and…
name. many names.
weird.
Obviously, all the people here are dead, and now I don’t have information about the person’s personal information, so I can’t know their name anymore, but just looking at their faces kept reminding me of people’s names.
When did you have so many relationships, when did you remember so many people.
I was concerned about the lives of people who died unjustly, and I was influenced by the strange story of a widow I didn’t even know…
So, while not interfering with the stories of the people with whom they were in a relationship, treating people like pumpkins, making useless noises that they would walk a commoner-friendly course, putting up the mask of an ideal saint, whether it be a role-playing game or a famous work, it was like a good feeling. As I used game terminology, I thought I had managed to control unnecessary relationships with so much effort.
Alternately, when, like this.
I felt strange. It seemed a little sad.
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen innocent people sacrificed. It was a place where innocent people often died.
So I pretended to be an ideal saint. At least it would reduce the occurrence of such things in front of my eyes. Because you would become conscious of me one more time before harming others as if it were natural. Because this is a little more convenient.
That’s why I hated devil worshipers. It’s not simply because I’m hostile to them, it’s just that the church itself gives me trouble, but they keep bringing the dark side of this world right in front of my eyes.
“Saint Ronan. Wake up. You mustn’t collapse here.”
The princess’s words dug into and cut off the endless thoughts.
Collapsing?
Of course, I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a blow to the deaths of people I knew, but it wasn’t fatal.
Even unconsciously, I checked to see if there were any bodies with whom I had a deeper connection, such as Priest Rhys or the corpses of two children from the slums, and confirmed that there were none. That was enough.
In the end, the deaths of the people here were the deaths of people with such a close relationship rather than strangers.
It was clear that the reason why I was in such a strange mood was that my supporters were being cut while I couldn’t completely protect them, and I was worried that there would be setbacks in the future.
And I was able to fully control these negative emotions.
I was particularly good at gathering negative emotions and forging them into hostility toward others, just as I burned my anger against the cardinals and devil worshippers. It is also a virtue essential to mental victory and self-justification.
After all, it wasn’t a new target, and I didn’t need to make up my mind. This time, the opponent was also a devil worshiper anyway.
A devil worshiper is a devil worshiper. Of course, the answer is to exterminate these people from the world.
If you think about it that way, it was a good story.
“I’ll go first.”
“Wait, Saint Ronan. This time, we’ll deal with the trap using the corpse first…”
When I came to a conclusion and made such a sudden assertion, the people around me panicked and tried to follow me.
Then, unlike before, the corpses that had fallen around began to rise one by one and block them.
What stood out to me was that the puppets did not particularly stand in my way.
Yeah, you’ve been waiting too, right? That’s what I hoped for.
“Ronan Saint, it’s a trap! Wait!”
Among the corpse puppets being manipulated, there were a lot of knights who had been put in first and had lost contact, who had not been seen until they came here.
I wondered where they had disappeared, and they were all gathered here.
The level of the corpse used was different, so the method of use was different from the existing puppets that were used for self-destruction.
Instead of simply exploding and grabbing their feet, they drew their swords and charged the other knights.
In addition, unlike before, the corpse puppets had a condition called burning mana.
I don’t know the details, but judging from the fact that the opposing knights couldn’t easily gain the upper hand, I thought it was a kind of buff that I applied to the corpse like I did to the knights.
In a state of equality, the opponent was not afraid of being stabbed to death and pressed with a single attack, so a defensive confrontation was naturally maintained.
Given this situation, what the princess said was extremely reasonable.
Not only did I block others, but the corpses were displayed at the entrance, stimulating my nerves and making me act emotionally, so anyone could not help but think of a trap.
“Saint Ronan!”
“Ronan-nim!”
But I pretended not to hear and kept walking.
I stopped for a moment and broke a structure made of people’s corpses by infusing it with divine power.
Sorry, I’ll fix it properly in a little while.
The puppeteer has been strengthened and the mind-draining magical medium that has been circulating inside the church has been removed, so sooner or later the people within the church will come to their senses.
If you come to your senses and go outside, more people will be put in from the outside, who have recognized that something has changed. The puppet technique will also be weakened, so those who are currently in a confrontation will soon subdue the puppets and come inside.
Even if it’s a trap, you just have to hold out for a while.
You might ask if it’s okay to enter with others in the first place, but I had a question about him.
A saint questioning a devil worshiper is not a good picture for others to see.
Besides, I personally thought that this would not be a trap.
This guy just genuinely wants to talk to me.
It was ridiculous to pass this judgment on the guy who tried to use the student to kill me earlier, but that’s what I judged anyway.
And to show such a relaxed attitude must mean that the purpose has already been accomplished and safety has been secured.
Maybe you should go inside there to find another puppet.
Unless the opponent is a devil worshiper himself, there is a limit even if he eventually sells a trap.
Even if it was a trap, there was a high possibility that it was within the range that I could handle unless I was vigilant.
And, as I said before, I thought the possibility of this being a trap was small. I don’t want to admit it, but this guy’s actions were quite efficient, rather than putting all his energy into taking out his anger by killing others in anger and hating the world.
It seems that I am only obsessed with the sacred object…now it’s not the holy object, but probably the object with my holy power, but anyway, I’m sticking to the best route to achieve that goal.
As I’ve spared myself, I didn’t bother killing people who ran away even though they stormed into the church, and above all, if the corpse puppets were able to fight on an equal footing with the knights, there’s no reason the vacant lot would become such a mess.
Everyone would have died before it became a mess. The devil worshipers tried to ignore it and pass by, but the clergy and followers persistently stopped them, and in the end, the devil worshipers who decided that killing them was more efficient killed them.
That was the conclusion I came to after seeing the horrors of the clearing.
Therefore, it should be considered that the corpses scattered in the clearing did not contain any intention to provoke me.
…but then, what the hell did they die for?
If it wasn’t bait to lure me in, if it didn’t prevent the devil worshipers from achieving their goals, if they died without even knowing what the devil worshipers were after. What would their deaths be worth?
As I walked, my brain, which had been struggling to keep my cool and comprehend the situation, began to heat up again.
You should have run away. You should have lived once.
What on earth did you risk your life for? Do you know what the hell you died trying to protect?
It’s a toy to soothe a child’s crying. It’s just a coffin made of flowers, and pretty things are everything.
It was such a trivial thing that I, who made it, had forgotten about its existence, so I never thought that it would cause such a disaster.
Thinking about it makes me angry. Why the hell didn’t he run away?
The devil worshiper is like that too. If you’re going to save him, he’ll keep you alive. What if he just kills you for blocking him? Do you think this is really efficient?
As expected, these devil worshipers are the root of all evil. The method is efficient and sleepy, but these guys are just bad from the beginning.
Just then, I started hearing someone talking in the distance.
Without further ado, it was certain that he was a devil worshiper, so I gradually began to gather divine power in my hands.
bang!
As I approached the room where the sound could be heard, I fired the Saint Beam at the wall without hesitation.
The heat that reached the top of my head made me feel like I couldn’t keep my cool without breaking something.
“Did you really have to go this far?”
As we broke through the wall, we started talking.
First of all, I wanted to ask that demon worshiper, so I dared to do useless things in front of the princess and came in first alone.
Even if you kill them, you have to talk to them at least before killing them.
However, the moment I try to reveal my anger once again by pretending that I have no intention of talking because I am in a state of anger in order to take the initiative in the conversation.
“Really like this…”
The moment I was about to let out a voice that contained such anger, I saw the shape of a person who had fallen on the other side, not a demon worshiper.
The man was not yet dead, and his name was clearly visible even in the dust-shrouded form.
ah.
Why the hell did you feel relieved just because you weren’t in the clearing?
I just heard from a kid a little while ago that he was taken by a demon worshiper.
Have I lost my temper that much?
No. At least in this situation, you’re trying to get information from the devil worshipers through conversation, and you’re maintaining the concept of honorifics.
I guess that’s enough to keep my composure at least…
The moment I thought so, the dust began to clear and the figure of the priest covered in blood gradually came into my eyes.
…
And I immediately lost that minimal coolness that I was confident about.
Feelings bordering on hatred for the unanswering devil worshiper boiled over.
“You ask me if I really had to go this far because of that pile of flowers, you bastard!”
Immediately after, numerous light bullets rushed towards the demon worshipers.
