Big Boss (4)
Yohan was left alone in his lodgings. He had made Falco and Charles secure another place to stay and wait there, just in case.
He had even instructed them, preparing for the worst, that if they confirmed his death, they were to forget about revenge or any of that nonsense and flee Balifield immediately.
"It was supposed to be a simple matter of finding stolen goods in the market, yet the board has grown larger in ways I could never have imagined."
"Tell me about it," Yohan muttered.
Meanwhile, the Goddess had gone out of her way to fashion a physical vessel and descend to the mortal plane. She paced around Yohan, her bare feet pattering against the floorboards.
It was her way of saying that even if everyone else left, she would remain by his side. Yohan easily grasped why she wasn't waiting in her spiritual form, but he chose to play dumb.
"Sigh, what a dog-shit twist of fate."
He spat the curse into the empty air out of sheer frustration. The Goddess looked at him with a bittersweet smile.
"A polite, squinty-eyed villain? And a mafia boss to boot? Screw this."
Regardless of her reaction, Yohan kept grumbling.
"Ugh, the moment I saw what he looked like, I should've just run for the hills. Why did I have to act tough? Look at the mess I'm in now."
At this rate, that bastard would probably declare he was going to use the evil god's power to stand in the heavens instead of the underground.
Yohan let out a succession of irritated sighs and rubbed his tired face with his hands. But what could he do? There was no other way now.
Besides, now that he was the Apostle of the Unnamed Goddess, running away after discovering a monster threatening innocent people would look incredibly pathetic.
"If I tuck tail and run now, my pride will never recover."
"My Apostle," the Goddess spoke, stopping her pacing.
Having walked with her hands clasped behind her back, she suddenly paused and broke the silence. Yohan turned his head slightly to meet her gaze.
"You speak so cynically, yet do you not secretly believe that you are the only one who can do this?"
"..."
Yohan offered no reply to her words. No, he couldn't.
"If you truly wished to, you could simply take Falco and that boy and flee Balifield, could you not?"
"What are you even talking about?"
Why was she suddenly acting like this when she had been the one insisting they had to eliminate Big Boss by any means necessary? Yohan snorted, looking at her.
"Hmph."
At his reaction, the Goddess let out a soft chuckle and smirked. She strode over and thrust her face close to Yohan's.
"You intend to fulfill your duty as my Apostle. This is an undeniable truth, and I know it well."
"When the boss tells you to jump, you jump. What choice do I have?"
"But a mere sense of obligation would hardly be enough to steel your resolve to fight an unknown enemy."
Even as Yohan sneered, the Goddess continued.
"My Apostle Yohan. What kind of person were you in the past? You walked the path of a villain just to survive, yet in the end, you could not cast aside the weakness of an ordinary man, and so you were betrayed by other villains."
So what? Yohan lost even the will to retort and flopped backward onto the bed.
"My Apostle. What do you think an 'ordinary man' is?"
"How should I know, you dummy?"
"Ordinary people are weak. Though exceptional individuals occasionally rise from their ranks, most never deviate from the average."
Here he was, practically getting an ulcer from the impending battle, and she was delivering a sermon. Yohan resolved that if the blockhead in front of him spouted any more nonsense, he would give her a good flick on the forehead.
"And I am a being born from the beliefs of such ordinary people. The faith gathered from countless insignificant souls is what fashions grand miracles."
Hearing her next words, Yohan changed his mind. He had thought she was just babbling, but she was actually making a surprisingly profound point.
"In this perilous world, ordinary people—including yourself—are the ones who find peace of mind by choosing an object of faith, and go even further to manifest miracles in the physical realm."
A thought suddenly flashed through Yohan's mind. The magical phenomena performed by the priests of the Holy Kingdom—the so-called Miracle Arts.
"My Apostle. Are you truly standing here solely to fulfill your duty as a god's representative?"
"..."
The conversation had come full circle. The Goddess posed the same question to Yohan once more.
"My thoughts differ. You pretend to wait for this battle because you are pushed by the title of an Apostle, but in truth, you have steeled your resolve of your own free will, not due to external pressure."
The Goddess climbed onto the bed. She crawled over and thrust her face directly into Yohan's line of sight.
"To brave such immense danger for the innocent people of Balifield is undoubtedly your own choice. And the world calls that 'goodwill.'"
"Hmph."
Yohan turned his head away. But the Goddess merely smiled, completely unbothered. She gently stroked his hair.
"You are simply shy. That is why you pretend otherwise."
Flash—
With those final words, the Goddess dissolved back into her spiritual form. Once again, Yohan was left entirely alone in the spacious room.
—Someone is coming this way.
"Yeah."
Yohan felt the vibrations of footsteps traveling through the wooden floorboards.
"Up we go."
He immediately got out of bed and walked toward the entrance. Grasping the doorknob, he pulled the door open.
"It is a pleasure to see you again on the surface."
Standing beyond the doorway was, as expected, Big Boss. Though his face was concealed beneath a low-pulled hood, his aura made his identity unmistakable.
Curiously, despite his position as the leader of the Undercity Family, he had brought no guards. He probably doesn't need them because he's just that strong, Yohan thought, glaring at the man's amiable smile.
"Your lodgings are quite spacious. Isn't it lonely using them all by yourself?"
Big Boss spoke while peering past Yohan's shoulder into the room. It sounded like casual small talk, but it was a subtle declaration that he knew Yohan had companions.
"Well, that is not what matters. What matters is the business between you and me."
Big Boss said, pulling off his hood.
"I have some things I would like to discuss regarding the statue you destroyed. Could you spare me a moment of your time?"
"Sure."
Yohan gave a curt reply. There was no longer any need to play polite like last time.
"Thank you. Let us head down to the underground together, then. If we cause a commotion up here, even I would find it difficult to clean up the mess."
Suits me just fine. Yohan nodded silently and followed behind Big Boss.
—My Apostle. Can you feel it?
Yohan merely kept his eyes locked on Big Boss's back. Reacting to the Goddess's voice now would only arouse suspicion.
Even so, he understood exactly what she meant. In the short time since they last met, the evil energy radiating from the man had grown significantly stronger.
"The Undercity is, as far as I know, the largest single structure in this region. To think such a massive complex was built entirely underground... it truly is a marvel."
On the way down, Big Boss conversed with Yohan as if they were old friends. However, it was a one-sided conversation. Yohan saw no reason to play along with his idle chatter.
The two reached the deepest depths of the underground, stopping at the end of a deserted passage. A heavy, tightly sealed door blocked their path.
"I became the master of this Undercity, and I wish to keep my seat for as long as possible."
Saying this, Big Boss pulled an old key from his breast pocket and slid it into the keyhole of the sealed door.
*Rumble—*
With a heavy, grinding screech, the door that had been shut for ages slowly ground open, revealing the space beyond.
Yohan blinked at the sight. A massive gallery, reminiscent of a grand marketplace, stretched out before them.
"Come, let us step inside. It is the perfect place to fight without holding back."
"Damn, you're not wrong."
Yohan couldn't help but agree this time. Big Boss seemed quite pleased that Yohan had finally responded, offering a warm smile.
The two stepped into the gallery. As the cold, stagnant air filled Yohan's lungs, he felt a strange sense of calm wash over him, stilling the tension in his body.
"At first, I assumed you were a Heresy Inquisitor or a Holy Knight dispatched by the Holy Kingdom. After all, you destroyed a statue imbued with the energy of the god I serve with your bare hands."
"An Inquisitor?"
—To destroy an object imbued with divine energy, one must possess a power of equal measure.
"Wait a minute. Then... putting that statue up for auction in the first place wasn't a mistake on your end, was it?"
At Yohan's words, Big Boss clapped his hands in delight.
"Correct. I recently caught wind that the Holy Kingdom was keeping tabs on my movements. So, I set a little trap."
In other words, Yohan, who had absolutely nothing to do with the Holy Kingdom's church, had inadvertently sprung and shattered the trap Big Boss had laid.
"Well, sorry to disappoint. I'm neither a Holy Knight nor an Inquisitor."
Yohan said, reaching for the hilt of the sword at his waist.
"I'm not anyone grand. To be honest, until recently, I was just a lowlife scraping by in a grave-robbing crew under your family's banner."
"Oh?"
Big Boss let out a soft exclamation of surprise.
"A grave-robbing crew. What a fascinating coincidence."
"Yeah. And from the looks of it, you cleaned house and got rid of the crew when you wrapped up your business."
"It is true that I disposed of them, but it was not for the purpose of wrapping up my business."
Yohan tilted his head at Big Boss's reply.
"Then why did you do it?"
"Well, I am aware that the crew was trying to reorganize themselves around their leader. I heard they weeded out a few members in the process."
"Yeah. I'm one of those 'weeded out' guys."
Thinking of that bald bastard of a Grave Robber Leader made his blood boil all over again. If the guy were still alive, Yohan would have loved to smash his fist right into his face. Yohan smacked his lips in frustration.
"At any rate, the members of that crew proved to be of great help to me in their final moments. They lent me their strength so that I might face you—someone who, like myself, wields the authority of a god."
*Sssss—*
In an instant, the surrounding air turned freezing cold. At the same time, Yohan watched as the whites of Big Boss's eyes stained pitch-black, and his blue irises bled into a crimson red.
Lent me their strength. Yohan instantly grasped the horrific meaning behind those words, his face contorting in disgust.
"You... you crazy bastard..."
The grave-robbing crew hadn't just been purged. They had been used as raw nourishment to fuel Big Boss's dark, evil powers.
"Haha. How fascinating. Why do you look so angry on behalf of those who betrayed you?"
He was right, in a way. Yohan and Falco had been utterly betrayed by that crew and left to die. Even now, Yohan hadn't forgotten the burning resentment of that betrayal.
And yet, the fury boiled hot in his chest. Yohan drew his sword from its sheath.
"If those bastards were going to get torn apart, I should've been the one to do it. I can't stand some worse piece of shit beating me to the punch. You motherfucker."
With that, he leveled the tip of his blade straight at Big Boss.