The battle began with Amon’s preemptive strike.
Clang!
Amon’s sword collided with the scarred man’s bare hands, resonating with a sharp sound.
The man grabbed the blade and shouted.
“I am Balam! I am here to teach you the tr—”
“Deus Vult!!!”
“Let me finish talking!”
As his sword was caught, Amon swung the other one without hesitation.
The man who introduced himself as Balam dodged the sword aimed at his neck with ease.
Even so, he kept trying to converse with Amon.
“So, as I was saying!”
But Amon, uninterested, continued attacking.
Balam, who had been on the defensive, eventually gave up and went on the offensive.
“Maybe if I calm you down, we can talk… fine!”
With a loud battle cry, he stomped the ground, flipping the road.
Amon’s body was thrown into the air by the impact.
Balam targeted Amon in midair with a punch.
However, Amon stepped on the air itself, effortlessly evading the attack.
“Tch.”
As Amon landed, he clicked his tongue.
One of his hidden cards was revealed sooner than expected, and he hadn’t even managed to force out any of Balam’s tricks.
Though not fatal, it was regrettable.
‘Let’s see if I can force out at least one of his cards.’
Amon put some distance between himself and Balam, pulling the trigger of his crossbow.
The arrow silently cut through the darkness, aimed at Balam’s forehead.
But Balam easily blocked it and charged toward Amon.
In response, Amon widened the gap again.
Balam discerned Amon’s blatant intentions.
“Fine. I’ll play along with your plan.”
With a smile, he swung his arm through the air.
The afterimages of his rapidly moving arm grew longer.
Before Amon could identify what it was, his instincts kicked in, and he blocked it.
Clang!
Only after deflecting the attack did Amon realize that it wasn’t an arm but extended claws.
Amon calmly assessed the distance between himself and Balam.
‘A ranged fight won’t work here.’
The claws were roughly 10 meters long.
Though the crossbow had a greater range, firing from too far would only give Balam time to react and dodge.
‘His reach is longer than mine for now.’
He immediately abandoned the strategy of long-range harassment.
Amon closed the gap between them.
Balam manipulated his claws flexibly, countering Amon’s attacks.
“You amateur! You don’t even know how to handle mystical powers properly!”
“It’s called holy power, you heretic!”
“Ugh, what’s even the difference!”
The two clashed in an intense duel.
***
A pink-haired woman watching the battle silently pulled out a multi-barrel rocket launcher.
“Whatever. They’ll figure it out.”
With a detached murmur, she aimed at her allies.
But just as her finger pressed the trigger, she suddenly changed direction and fired the rockets elsewhere.
Sonia, seeing the launcher turn toward her, abandoned her sniping position and moved.
Boom!
Despite the explosion occurring nearby, Sonia’s eyes remained fixed on the pink-haired woman.
Under the cover of the booming sound, Sonia fired a shot.
A silent armor-piercing bullet raced toward the pink-haired woman’s head.
The pink-haired woman turned her gaze toward the incoming bullet.
Just before it struck, she smiled.
“Ah!”
She caught the bullet with her teeth.
The pink-haired woman grinned at Sonia.
With an impressive display, she thought she had the upper hand.
However, contrary to her expectations, Sonia’s reaction was indifferent.
By the time the pink-haired woman noticed something was off, her mouth grew warm.
“Oh.”
Boom!
The bullet she held in her teeth exploded.
Meanwhile, Sonia reloaded another bullet into the chamber.
These bullets were highly expensive, prone to malfunction, and could only be loaded individually.
Despite these drawbacks, their effectiveness upon impact made them Sonia’s preferred ammunition.
As Sonia aimed again, a near-screeching yell came from the pink-haired woman.
“Ahhh! My hair! Do you know how much effort went into styling this?!”
Though she had taken a high-explosive round to the head, the pink-haired woman remained shockingly unscathed.
Her hair was slightly singed, and her skin had a few scratches, but nothing serious.
Her vocal cords, however, had been damaged, making her voice raspy.
Yet, even that was far from normal.
Unfazed, Sonia pulled the trigger again.
This time, she aimed for the rocket launcher the pink-haired woman carried.
The loaded rockets and the explosive round detonated together.
From the smoke of the explosion emerged the pink-haired woman, her face half-burned.
“Ahhh! You shot me again, you crazy bitch! I was told to bring you in alive, but you’re dead now! I’ll kill you myself!”
The pink-haired woman, her eyes glowing red, charged at Sonia.
‘Is she even killable?’
Sonia clicked her tongue at the pink-haired woman’s tenacity and increased the distance between them.
It was clear that touching her monstrous body would leave no bones intact.
Sonia fired as she retreated, but the pink-haired woman was not only durable but also fast.
Despite Sonia’s efforts to create distance, the gap between them gradually closed.
Just as the pink-haired woman’s hand nearly grabbed Sonia’s hair, Sonia revealed a new weapon.
Boom!
“Huh?”
With a sound of flesh bursting, the hand reaching for Sonia’s hair disappeared.
Sonia held a sawed-off shotgun in her hand.
It was a dwarven masterpiece that sacrificed recoil control, accuracy, and range, focusing solely on raw power.
The pink-haired woman froze, unable to comprehend the situation.
Realizing her left hand was gone, she let out a sharp scream.
“Ahhhh!!!”
It was sharper and more grating than any of her previous screams, enough to make even Sonia, usually stoic, grimace.
‘Does this woman ever stop screaming?’
In her mind, Sonia decided to nickname the pink-haired woman “Screamer.”
She broke open the shotgun and ejected the spent casing.
Then, she loaded two new slugs and aimed at Screamer.
‘This is the only weapon I have that can hurt her.’
But the shotgun had its downsides.
Its excessive power placed a great strain on her body.
Though Sonia had an ability to absorb recoil, even that had its limits, and the shotgun exceeded those limits.
As the dwarven artisan had said:
“For this caliber, this power, it’s more of a mounted weapon, not a handheld one, lass.”
Just as the dwarf warned, Sonia’s hand trembled slightly after firing one shot.
But…
‘I can manage.’
Her muscles were slightly shocked, but her bones weren’t fractured.
Considering her regenerative ability, it was bearable.
It might be difficult to snipe for the time being… but I can pull the trigger of this gun to the end.
Sonia approached the Screamer without hesitation.
The Screamer, who no longer trusted its overwhelming defense, was no longer a predator.
The roles between the two had reversed.
The Screamer became the prey, and Sonia became the hunter.
Of course, Sonia would still struggle if caught by the Screamer.
But no matter how short a shotgun’s range is, it was still longer than a person’s arm.
Unless the Screamer could move at an unimaginable speed like Amon or extend its arms like the man fighting Amon, Sonia had an undeniable advantage.
Perhaps understanding this, the Screamer released a massive amount of divine energy.
With it, its speed also increased.
Perhaps its strength had also grown.
Yet even that was within Sonia’s ability to counter.
She pulled a green ampoule and a blue ampoule from her thigh and injected them into her left arm.
Her physical capabilities improved across the board, and her nervous system accelerated.
‘Five minutes is the time limit.’
Bracing for the inevitable headache to follow, Sonia engaged the Screamer.
Indeed, the Screamer had become faster.
But it was still not as fast as Amon.
Recalling Amon’s repeated emphasis on priorities, Sonia strategized her attack against the Screamer.
First, she immobilized its legs, depriving it of mobility.
Next, she targeted its arms, which were attempting to protect its head.
Finally, with the Screamer kneeling, Sonia pointed the muzzle of her shotgun at its head.
The Screamer smirked, looking at Sonia.
“I was unsure before the fight, but now I’m convinced. You’re back, aren’t you?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb. After what happened to you at the Cathedral, you’re still serving the goddess? At this point, it’s not faith; it’s insanity.”
“…”
Sonia’s lips pressed tightly together.
The Screamer continued, as if it had struck a nerve.
“Why cling to a silent goddess? Why not join us instead?”
“Earlier, weren’t you saying you’d kill me? Now you’re begging?”
“Yes.”
The Screamer admitted it outright, as if pride didn’t matter when life was at stake.
But Sonia’s response was cold.
“I know who you’re referring to, but you’ve got the wrong person.”
“What?”
“Believe it or not, I’m actually grateful to the goddess.”
Sonia slightly lifted the hem of her combat nun uniform, revealing her bare leg.
The Screamer’s eyes widened at the smooth, unblemished skin.
“That woman…! So she’s just a whore! Pretending to be pure all this time…”
Bang!
Sonia pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The Screamer’s headless body collapsed forward.
She muttered to the lifeless body, “I’m the only one who’s allowed to insult her.”
After dealing with the Screamer, Sonia straightened her uniform and turned toward Amon.
The battle on Amon’s side was nearing its end.
***
“For my mother!”
Amon had neutralized the man by severing his limbs.
After an intense battle, he cut off the man’s final arm, leaving only his torso.
Gripping the man’s hair, Amon proclaimed, “I told you, didn’t I? You’ll be thrown into the furnace.”
The “furnace” referred to a smelting forge.
Amon placed the torso of Balam beside him and contacted his car’s AI.
Before the car arrived, Balam coughed up blood and began to rant.
“What kind of brute are you? You can’t even use mystical power properly…”
“It’s called divine power. Get it right.”
“No matter how much you cry out to that woman, she won’t answer. It’s all a waste, you fool.”
Crack.
A vein bulged on Amon’s forehead.
But Balam bit into a poison capsule in defiance.
Before Sonia could use her detoxification magic, Balam grinned widely.
“See you in hell, Judas.”
With those words, Balam closed his eyes.
Silence fell between them, only to be broken by Balam’s confused exclamation.
“What? Why?”
In front of Balam’s bewildered gaze, Amon revealed a spherical device.
It was an EMP bomb.
“I brought this just in case, but I never thought it’d come in handy.”
The bomb had been prepared to counteract the attackers sent by Neville Pharmaceuticals, who used electric shocks to prevent suicides by poison.
Despite its intended use, Amon had carried it as a precaution.
A cold sweat ran down Balam’s forehead.
“This can’t be…”
“Death isn’t an escape, heretic.”
Amon gagged Balam, who screamed pitifully as he was dragged away.
***
The scene shifted to somewhere in Europe.
In a dark room, the holograms of twelve individuals appeared.
Each figure wore masks and robes, with filters obscuring their voices, making even their genders indiscernible.
However, they all shared one common trait—an inverted pentagram tattooed somewhere on their bodies.
A meeting of this mysterious group began.
“Balam and Zagan have been defeated,” announced one figure with a pentagram on their shoulder.
The remaining eleven reacted with a mix of shock, anger, and indifference.
The speaker raised a hand to silence them and continued, “This is the footage Naberious envisioned.”
With a gesture, a video played before them, showing Amon and Balam’s battle from a third-person perspective.
Watching the fight, a figure with a magic circle on their head muttered, “He’s more beast than man.”
Another agreed. “Am I seeing this right? He’s only using basic mystical abilities.”
“You’re correct. It’s just physical enhancement.”
“How is that possible? His strength and duration far exceed the norm.”
“In theory, it’s plausible.”
“Does he have an endless reserve of mystical energy?”
“Not endless, but he seems like a nuclear power plant.”
Several sighed in unison, acknowledging his exceptional blessing.
One murmured, “I’d prefer to recruit him as an ally.”
“Forget it. After watching this, it’s clear that’s impossible.”
The speaker moved the video forward, showing Amon hooking Balam’s torso onto a chain and lowering it into the furnace.
Balam screamed, but Amon prayed over him instead.
[Mother, you commanded that idol worshippers be cast into the furnace with their idols. I obey your words.]
[Mercy! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll reveal my organization! Please, just spare me!]
[You taught us to hate sin but not sinners. I pray for forgiveness for this man.]
[Kill me swiftly if you must! Please!]
[I return this wayward son to your side. Take his sins and accept him as your own.]
[Listen to me, you lunatic!]
Balam’s flesh sizzled from the heat as he screamed in agony.
The most horrifying part was that Amon never fully lowered him into the furnace, keeping him just above it, roasting him alive with its heat.
Amon’s prayers did not cease until Balam’s body was completely burned.
One robed figure watching the scene whispered to their lieutenant, “Honestly, I think he’s Satan himself.”
“At the very least, he’s not human,” the lieutenant replied.
Everyone present silently agreed.
The proposal to recruit Amon as an ally was tacitly abandoned.
“Orobas will have a hard time,” the speaker muttered, continuing the meeting.
The topic of discussion was the Grand Corruption Plan for the European Region.