Chapter 44 : Assembly (2)

[This chapter may contain some unpleasant elements.]

“This… what is this place?”

I muttered in a disoriented voice. 

The surrounding scene was enough to justify my reaction.

“It’s dreadful…”

Agnes squinted as she surveyed the area.

Around us, dozens of corpses lay scattered. 

The fact that such a thing was happening in an underground city created an overwhelming sense of disconnect. 

I felt like I was about to vomit, but we kept moving forward. 

We had to find out what this place was all about.

“This…”

Suddenly, I stopped in front of a particular body. 

This corpse was different from the others.

“A follower of the Origin Cult?”

The corpse was dressed in the religious attire of the Origin Cult.

“No, it’s a priest. Why would a priest be in a place like this…?”

I rejected Agnes’s assumption. 

This person wasn’t a regular follower. 

It was a priest. 

The red rose pattern on the shoulder confirmed it.

“I don’t know what happened here, but this is definitely not normal.”

The priest’s body was in a far from normal state. 

The robes were torn to rags, and strange, dark fluid covered their body. And from below…

Blood was dripping.

Unlike Agnes, I could deduce from this priest’s corpse alone what had been done to them. 

Agnes likely felt the same but was simply holding back, not voicing it. 

With her sharp senses, there’s no way she wouldn’t notice the awful stench around us.

“Why would they do this…?”

A voice full of anger escaped my lips.

“We’ve got more to figure out now. There’s a reason we must uncover the truth.”

Agnes’s words were right. We had to figure this out. 

Up until now, we had been observing the situation, but things had changed. 

With the cult’s followers being victims, we could no longer stand by and watch.

We had to make them pay. 

For this woman.

I raised my holy sword. 

It was a ritual to guide the unjustly and shamefully murdered souls in unfamiliar territories.

At that moment…

“Stop what you’re doing for a moment. Someone’s coming. Several people… maybe? This is strange.”

At her words, I halted the ritual preparations. I focused, listening intently.

Moments later, as Agnes had said, I heard footsteps approaching from the opposite corridor. 

Someone was coming this way.

I gripped the hilt of my holy sword, waiting silently. 

I waited for the source of the footsteps to appear. 

Holding my breath.

Soon, a woman appeared.

“Who are you?”

She had long, brown hair. 

Her eyes were covered with bandages, so I couldn’t tell what she looked like. 

One odd thing, however, was that she was dressed in attire resembling that of an Origin Cult priest. 

She looked like a priest of the Origin Cult.

I answered her question in a cold voice.

“We’re the ones asking questions. Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

She didn’t respond. 

She remained silent. I opened my mouth again to question her.

“This is strange.”

At that moment, Agnes spoke with a hint of confusion.

“I distinctly smell several people. But for some reason, there’s only one person here.”

“Why’s that?”

“There’s a discrepancy in the senses. Sight and smell are giving different results.”

Agnes continued, staring at the woman.

“The scent of a human is one of the key identifiers for people like us with heightened senses. So why does your body give off multiple different scents? Especially around your head, where the smell changes drastically. Answer me. Why?”

The woman didn’t respond to Agnes’s question. 

Agnes glared at her with contempt, then spoke coldly.

“You ate them, didn’t you?”

Agnes’s voice echoed in the silence. We were enveloped in an eerie stillness.

And within that silence, I saw it.

The woman’s lips slowly curled into a smile.

“You filthy creature! How dare you still call yourself human?”

Agnes shouted in fury. 

Her gaze was like a burning flame.

The woman answered her question with a loud laugh.

“Ha… Hahaha, hahahaha! Amazing! Yes, you’re right! We ate people! And when you asked who did this, the answer is us! Yes, we did this!”

“Why the hell did you do something like this?”

“What do you mean, ‘something like this’? This is salvation. We liberated them from their painful lives.”

“Do you think this is salvation?”

“Of course! Didn’t you forget what hunger feels like?”

The woman answered with a serene smile, as if she was truly at peace. 

Her smile and actions showed no hesitation. 

She genuinely believed what she was saying.

“What I did was salvation! I helped them escape this painful world through death! And at the end, I even helped them find peace! If this isn’t salvation, then what is?”

I retorted as if rejecting her words.

“This is nonsense! What you did was murder! Are you saying everyone believed your words without question?”

“Of course, there were a few ‘heretics’ who resisted. But once we threw them into the abyss of desire, it didn’t take long for them to want death themselves.”

The woman spoke and pointed at something.

“That woman you’re holding is one of them.”

“How dare you desecrate her!”

“Not at all. She didn’t die in misery. She even said she was happy in the end.”

The woman spread her arms and shouted.

“Do you know what the most miserable death is for a human? Starvation! Dying like a beast, unable to eat, with nothing to eat! A human! The same human who cries out about being different from a beast! Dying just like one!”

Was she talking about the famine in Birren? I had heard that many peasants had died due to years of poor harvests. She seemed to be a survivor from there.

“After the famine, many people starved. And they died.

One day, it was a neighbor! One day, it was a family member! As each day passed, more people died! Screams filled the air, and cries were heard everywhere.”

“If you had asked for help, things could’ve been solved! What you’re saying now is nothing but an excuse!”

I shouted at her. She shook her head in response.

“We did ask for help. But nothing changed. No one came to our aid.”

“That’s impossible! You must have done nothing to overcome that situation!”

“I fed my child my own arm when they were starving!”

The woman grabbed her right sleeve with her left hand, lifted it to her chest, and then let it fall. Her right sleeve fell limply.

Her voice cracked, almost as if she were screaming in sorrow.

“But I still couldn’t bear it! My child died in my arms, starving to death!”

“Th-that’s still! What you did was wrong!”

I continued, my voice trembling. My heart wavered, but I managed to continue by blaming her for her original sin.

“Do you pity me? How kind of you. But it’s alright. Strangely, I couldn’t cry. I should have been crying. It hurt so much that my heart should’ve torn apart, but… no tears came.”

The woman gently placed her hand on her stomach. Then, she smiled.

“I was just relieved that I didn’t have to starve anymore.”

In response, I shouted angrily.

“You wicked woman! You will be punished by heaven! For sure!”

“Who is the one who will punish me?”

The woman shouted in indignation.

“I prayed and prayed, but salvation never came! Why did that god of yours never save us? People starved to death. People ate people! If the god you speak of truly exists, shouldn’t something like this never have happened?”

I couldn’t respond to her question. 

No matter what I said, it would be rejected. 

The misfortune had already occurred.

While I was silent, she kept shouting.

“Ah, in fact, the god of the Origin Cult never existed! I only realized that after losing everything! I realized the true god! The god who offers salvation to us!

A god who forgives anything if it helps us forget the pain!”

There was madness in her expression.

I instinctively drew my holy sword. 

It was an automatic action. 

A small sound echoed as the sword was unsheathed.

“We pondered what we could do for the god who devoted themselves to us. 

There was only one thing. To send a devotee to them!”

“What?”

Through it, we go to the side of the god and serve Him. 

What an honorable mission this is! In this imperfect world filled with suffering, we are moving toward a perfect world without pain through death!”

“Don’t make me laugh! Death couldn’t possibly exist for such a thing! Do not insult death! Death is not something that is consumed for someone else’s sake!”

“If it is not for that, then why have we died?”

“That is…”

I felt my words failing me once again at her question.

“If it wasn’t to serve the god, then why did we have to die? What meaning does our death hold? Who exactly were we supposed to die for?”

It was a severe form of self-justification. She didn’t want to accept that those close to her had died in vain, so she was trying to rationalize it, telling herself it was for the god.

So, I couldn’t say anything. No matter what I said, it wouldn’t reach her.

Then, what remains…

I turned my gaze toward the holy sword.

The woman pointed at herself.

“As you said, I am not human! I have forsaken my humanity. Therefore, I will bear it all! I will create more happy people! Good things should be shared, don’t you think? The god also desires this!”

“What kind of god desires such a thing?”

“The nameless god desires it. For He loves us.”

A nameless god? I had never heard of such a god before.

“The people remaining in the mortal world are gathering disciples to serve Him, and the disciples go to Him through death to serve Him. How beautiful a scene this is! Except for one thing… until those remaining in the mortal world fulfill their calling, they will have no chance to meet the god. But it’s okay! We will make this world a perfect one! One day, the god will be able to descend into our world!”

Her hand gathered at her chest. Her head slightly lifted, almost as if in worship of the god.

Soon, she cried out with a face full of emotion.

“The god is waiting for us!”

“You…”

Without a word, I pointed the holy sword at her.

I felt dizzy. In this sudden situation, I didn’t know what was going on. 

But one thing was clear to me.

These people were heretics.

“I will definitely bring you to trial! You will definitely face the god’s judgment!”

I shouted loudly, but the woman only sneered.

“Unfortunately, this conversation ends here. From now on, prepare to welcome the god in silence.”

She said this and turned her back to us, uttering one last phrase.

“Handle the heretics. Executor.”

And then she began to disappear down the passage she came from.

“Where are you going! Stop right there!”

I quickly took a step forward to catch her.

At that moment.

KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!

A high-pitched sound, like nails on glass, pierced my ears. 

Then, a massive hand shot out from the passage where she had disappeared, and something began to squeeze through.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know either!”

I shouted to Agnes while holding up my holy sword. 

The cry was so loud that I couldn’t hear my own voice if I didn’t shout. 

As I did so, it began to slowly reveal its shape.

After a short time, its full appearance emerged, and it was horrifying.

The part that could be guessed as its head was barely recognizable, as it seemed to be melted, dripping down like a lump of goo. 

Its limbs were twisted in every possible direction. 

Every leg was stretched out in different directions. 

Because of that, it could only stand awkwardly.

The front legs, presumed to be its front limbs, were more massive than the rest. 

Its corrupted, bulging body was covered in filth, making it difficult to breathe.

It had three mouths. 

One on its head, one on its body, and one on its hand. 

As if to prove this, all three were exhaling steam. 

That was the reason behind its loud cry.

The disturbing part wasn’t just its appearance.

Strangely…

Its cry resembled a human scream.

KIIIAAAAAAAGH!!!

I furrowed my brow.

It was hideous. 

And disgusting. 

The only thing that came to mind was that this must be what a creature abandoned by the god would look like.

I raised my holy sword.

SSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

At that moment, the monster’s scream echoed through the chasm.

[The god is waiting for us!]

Everyone in the large hall, united in mind and spirit, repeated the same words. 

The loud voices, gathered from many people, reverberated, shaking the air with their immense volume.

The sound was so deafening that my ears buzzed with each repetition.

In this place, where such a loud sound echoed…

“Ruina, please let go of this. Right now, release that person!”

“It’s not time yet!”

I was doing my best to stop Bliss.