The Decree of the Primary God
Immediately after the elderly demon vanished, Yohan walked over to the spot where it had stood and idly tapped the stone floor with his booted foot. Of course, kicking the innocent floor didn't make anything happen.
"Did he... run?"
"Hmph. It seems fleeing the moment things go south is the specialty of those wretched demons," the Goddess snorted in response to Yohan's murmur.
"Still, we must be careful just in case. He might be pretending to have fled while actually hiding somewhere around here."
"Hmm." Listening to Yohan and the Goddess's conversation from the side, Justia stepped forward. Naturally, the eyes of everyone nearby turned toward her.
"Hear me, all of you." Justia spoke in a flat, detached tone, yet her voice echoed clearly inside everyone's heads, much like how the Goddess sounded when she spoke in her spiritual form.
"You must all be deeply confused. The barrier that enveloped the entire Holy City has vanished without a trace, and the city is filled with the scars of destruction, both great and small."
Above all, what astonished the citizens of the Holy Kingdom was the sheer fact that the Primary God—the object of their faith whom they could never hope to meet—stood right before their eyes. As if to prove this, everyone gathered near the Papal Palace, from ordinary citizens to fully armed Holy Knights, could only stare blankly at Justia. They couldn't even think to show proper etiquette or offer a prayer to the master of the Central Church.
Honestly, this was the normal reaction. Yohan had faced various gods and demons ever since he became an Apostle against his will, but for them, it was different. He suddenly turned his head and looked at Judas. Judas's lips trembled slightly, seemingly deeply moved by the situation, but he was maintaining his composure remarkably well. This wasn't because Judas had nerves of steel, though. He had simply known beforehand through Yohan that they were going to rescue the Primary God, allowing him to prepare himself mentally.
"For the past several months, you have been toyed with by a demon and turned into their puppets." Instantly, a stir ran through the crowd that had been hanging on Justia's every word. They seemed to react with particular sensitivity to the word 'demon.'
"A demon targeting the Holy City—no, the entire Holy Kingdom—crept into the mind of the current Pope, Angelo, making him mistake that pretender for me, the Primary God Justia." These were the words of none other than the Primary God Justia herself. Even if they had only just escaped the madness and were not yet fully in their right minds, the devout citizens of the Holy Kingdom would believe anything she said.
"And while I slept briefly once more, Angelo cast a powerful barrier over the Papal Palace to seal me." Justia glanced up at the sky of the Holy City, now devoid of its defensive barrier. "...At the same time, all the believers who trusted in me fell into madness, and I nearly lost all my divinity and perished entirely." The crowd stirred once more. Everyone was shocked by the revelation that an immortal, eternal god could actually fade out of existence.
"However." Justia silenced the murmuring crowd with a single word. "My believers. As you can see, I stand here alive and well. And this is all thanks to..." She trailed off, turning her head to cast a subtle glance at Yohan and the Goddess.
"Look at her go..." Yohan smiled warmly as he watched Justia. When they had first communicated through the original scriptures, he had thought she was just a useless, stubborn second-rate deity, but she certainly possessed the charisma befitting a god who had lived for thousands of years.
"My other half, who calls herself the Unnamed Goddess, and her Apostle. Furthermore, Judas, a member of my Holy Knights, also joined in rescuing me." In an instant, everyone's eyes turned to Judas. Not only his fellow Holy Knights who knew him, but also the commoners and priests looked utterly astonished.
Good job, kid. Yohan offered his silent congratulations to Judas with a look. Now, Judas would be praised as the veteran hero who rescued the Primary God Justia, and every citizen of the Holy Kingdom would remember his name.
Honestly, even Yohan couldn't deny that Judas's help had been immense. He would never have thought of using the secret underground passage from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to reach the space directly beneath the Papal Palace without him. Of course, the way Judas had found out about that secret was a bit unsettling... but the results were good, so what did it matter?
"However, it is too early to celebrate our victory. The seed of the demon may still remain in this city." Quite apart from being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Judas, who had been a mere Holy Knight, was now set to live in luxury and honor for the rest of his days. On the other hand, the current Pope, Angelo III... had been branded the "seed of the demon" by none other than the Primary God Justia herself. It was no exaggeration to say their fates had diverged to opposite extremes.
"In the name of the Primary God Justia, I excommunicate the current Pope, Angelo III." The crowd stirred once more. Hearing the declaration of excommunication straight from the mouth of the deity herself, Yohan and the Goddess reflexively swallowed hard. By the standards of his original world, this was like the Pope himself declaring an excommunication... no, it was far more severe than that. Yohan shook his head in silent awe.
"And hear me, all of you." No doubt she was about to order them to find the former Pope, Angelo, who was surely hiding somewhere in the Holy City. After what she had been through, she would want to repay that grudge by any means necessary. She was, after all, fundamentally the same kind of being as their own stubborn Goddess. Hadn't she said that righteous revenge was justice itself? Yohan recalled how the Goddess had raised her voice and clamored for revenge back when he had resolved to pay back his old grave-robbing crew.
"Bring me Angelo, the seed of the demon who sought to destroy our Holy Kingdom from within." Of course she would. The Primary God Justia commanded with a face more furious than ever before.
From the moment the elderly demon retreated, the demonic madness that had hung over the Holy Kingdom vanished completely. Though the streets were still filled with the dead and injured, a hopeful atmosphere of having survived a national crisis prevailed throughout the Holy City and other parts of the kingdom, rather than despair over the immediate situation.
The reason the citizens of the Holy Kingdom could harbor such resilient hope was, above all, the fact that the Primary God Justia had fully awakened. A god, a being created from nothing through the faith of the people. And the people, who gathered their faith around such a god to maintain an even stronger spirit of community. This was also the future that the Goddess who accompanied Yohan desired.
"The number of cardinals confirmed alive so far is 117 in total, including many who had left the Holy City before the madness spread and have only just returned." Inside the Papal Palace, where the aftermath of destruction had not yet fully cleared, over a hundred high-ranking clergymen sat together. Most of those gathered in the meeting hall wore red vestments, which meant every single attendee was a cardinal, the highest-ranking clergy second only to the Pope.
To put it bluntly, the grand hall was packed with heavyweights. Sitting in the seat that would normally be reserved for the Pope was none other than Justia. Furthermore, with the Unnamed Goddess and Yohan standing behind her seat, the entire room was filled with a divine energy that, combined with the cardinals' own, was absolutely overwhelming. It felt as though any ordinary demon would cough up blood and collapse just by taking a breath here. In a space so saturated with divine power, Yohan wondered if a severed arm would simply grow back on its own without even needing to cast a miracle. He recalled a scene from his past experience at the Magic Tower in the royal capital of Westania.
"In addition, the casualties of the Holy Knights confirmed so far stand at approximately three thousand, while the Inquisitors belonging to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith suffered a relatively low number of 103." Right. Time to stop daydreaming. Yohan immediately focused on the briefing of the meeting's moderator.
The reason the number of casualties among the Inquisitors was relatively low was likely because a significant portion of them had been dispatched abroad to search for the original scriptures, thereby escaping the disaster. On the other hand, the damage to the Holy Knights, who had taken the direct hit of the madness on the front lines, was truly catastrophic. Although this was a fantasy world, the Holy Kingdom did not have a very large population compared to the Empire. Furthermore, considering the individual martial prowess of each Holy Knight and the sheer cost of training them... the loss was truly staggering.
Although they had overcome the immediate crisis, the Holy Kingdom's situation remained grim. While Justia herself had used her Authority to rebuild the destroyed barrier, restoring the other cities outside the Holy City would undoubtedly require an astronomical amount of time and budget. The cardinals gathered in the hall continued their discussion on the recovery process for a long time. After waiting in silence for a while...
"I have something to say regarding the Central Church's stance on other religions." Justia, who had only been observing the meeting until now, spoke up for the first time. Everyone, including the person who had just finished speaking, gasped in shock.
"We are all ears to the words of the Primary God." Justia swept her gaze over the bowing cardinals. The reason she hadn't intervened in the meeting until now was that she usually left ordinary matters to her believers. The fact that she was choosing to speak now meant she was about to address something of utmost importance.
Yes. A very important matter indeed. Yohan and the Goddess exchanged a brief glance and nodded with solemn faces. The time had come to fulfill the promise they had made earlier.
"As you know, during the long period of my slumber, the Central Church maintained a stance of thoroughly rejecting almost all other religions." And that wasn't all. They had even used their power to designate heresies for political purposes, making exceptions to allow a few select religions, such as the state religion of the Empire.
"Thus, I have one question to ask of you." Justia turned her head slightly to look at the Unnamed Goddess. "This being, who was once the same Justia as I and now calls herself the 'Unnamed Goddess,' risked her life alongside her Apostle to rescue me and prevent the destruction of the Central Church."
Hearing her words, some of the cardinals crossed themselves or immediately began to pray. Watching this, Yohan wondered why on earth they were praying when the Primary God was standing right in front of them, but he didn't voice his thoughts.
"I have heard of the path they walked through the Unnamed Goddess and her Apostle, Yohan." At Justia's words, all eyes fell upon Yohan. However, Yohan did not lose his composure; he merely blinked with a flat, indifferent face.
"They rescued me in the name of justice, and in doing so, they also saved our Central Church from the brink of collapse. Yet, according to our doctrines, the Unnamed Goddess and her followers are enemies to be purged, are they not?"
Of course, the Central Church's rejection of other religions didn't stem purely from selfishness. Countless faiths existed in this world, and among them were those that worshipped evil gods or demons rather than benevolent deities. Justia was well aware of this fact. Nevertheless, her resolve was firm.