Chapter 275
Chapter 275
When Zeke hesitated, Simon shouted loudly again.
"Shoot! Right now!"
Zeke's hands holding the crossbow trembled.
Then Simon kicked Zeke's legs.
THWACK!
Zeke fell down.
Simon picked up the fallen crossbow and aimed it at Zeke.
"If you don't shoot, you'll die."
Zeke slowly got up and took back the crossbow from Simon.
Then he turned and aimed the crossbow at the man who was holding the child.
He shot the crossbow at the man.
THWIP!
The crossbow bolt stuck into the ground next to the man, not hitting him. His trembling hands had caused him to miss.
Zeke loaded the crossbow again.
His hands were shaking badly.
He tried to aim precisely at the man's head again.
That's when it happened.
"P-please spare me..."
The child in the man's arms pleaded to Zeke in a pitiful voice while trembling.
The child was innocent.
The soma production factory just happened to be in this village.
An arrow was released from the crossbow Zeke was holding.
THWACK!
"ARGH!"
The arrow deeply pierced the shoulder of the man holding the child.
The child cried out while holding onto the man.
"Don't shoot! Please spare us!"
Tears were already flowing from Zeke's eyes.
A scene he never wanted to see again.
He felt his sense of self wavering and his mind crumbling.
Then Simon shouted.
"You'll die if you don't kill them! Kill them quickly!"
Zeke aimed at the crying child with trembling hands.
This scene always appeared in his nightmares.
There, Zeke killed everyone to survive and burned down the village to hide the evidence.
He had faithfully carried out Don Juan's orders, becoming his dog and staining his hands with the blood of countless innocents.
Blood flowed from his mouth as he clenched his teeth.
Looking at the trembling child, Zeke slowly opened his mouth.
"...It can be changed."
Simon shouted from behind again.
"What are you saying?! Shoot now!"
In that moment, Zeke turned around and aimed the crossbow at the shouting Simon while yelling.
"We can change it again!"
Zeke shot the crossbow at Simon.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Multiple arrows pierced into Simon's body.
"UGH."
Simon staggered backwards.
Zeke threw away the crossbow and took out a dagger from his chest.
Then he approached the crying child.
Holding the dagger, Zeke embraced the child and said.
"This time, I will make sure such tragedy never happens."
Simon, hit by the arrows, staggered while shouting to his troops.
"Kill that bastard!"
The troops surrounded Zeke.
Each one was a main force of the Mekein Cartel.
Zeke held his dagger and said to the child.
"Stay close to me."
The child cried and clung to Zeke.
"I-I want to live... I want to live."
Zeke held the child and said.
"Don't worry. I will protect you."
The troops came closer and closer to Zeke.
They raised their crossbows at Zeke. Then they started shooting arrows at him from all directions.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
In that moment, Zeke shielded the child with his back against the arrows.
THUD THUD THUD THUD!
Arrows pierced his back.
"URGH!"
Zeke groaned and held the child tighter.
The child cried out from his arms.
"N-no. No!"
Zeke looked at the child with a faint smile.
"I-I'm fine."
He held the child and quickly rolled to the side. Then he started running towards the deep forest, avoiding the troops.
While it would have been impossible to escape in reality, he was able to succeed in running away because he acted differently than in his past life.
"HUFF, HUFF!"
Zeke tried to escape this place through the forest while holding the child.
The arrows in his back pierced his lungs with each step he took.
URGH!
Even while coughing up red blood, Zeke kept running and running.
After running for a while, when Mekein's troops were no longer in sight, Zeke put down the child and fell to his knees.
"...Go."
The child clung to Zeke's arm while crying.
"L-let's go together!"
"It's already too late for me. Hurry and go."
Zeke stroked the child's head with his blood-covered hand.
The child looked at Zeke with a crying face.
Zeke coughed up blood once again.
The child cried harder and hugged Zeke.
Zeke moved slowly, wanting to hug the child one last time.
But that's when it happened.
STAB!
Zeke felt a terrible pain in his stomach.
"KUHAK..."
The child had taken the dagger from Zeke's chest and stabbed his stomach.
Zeke looked at the child with disbelief.
"W-why..."
The child who had been crying sorrowfully glared at him resentfully and said.
"Why did you kill my father?! Why?! Why did you kill him?!"
The child's sharp voice pierced Zeke's ears. Zeke trembled as he reached out towards the child.
"I-I wanted to ch...change..."
Then the child slowly stabbed the dagger into Zeke's heart while saying.
"You cannot change anything."
In that moment, the child's expression completely changed.
Zeke's pupils trembled before losing focus and going limp.
After confirming Zeke's death, the child who stabbed his heart dusted off their bloody hands and stood up.
"Persistent bastard. First time I've seen a human with such strong willpower."
Usually when they drew humans into their illusions, they would quickly forget who they were after falling into the realistic fantasy.
But this guy Zeke had such strong mental defenses that no matter how powerful the illusion, not only did he not lose his sense of self, he resisted even stronger.
Because of that, they had to quickly set up a stage to amplify his trauma in case the illusion broke midway.
The demon who took the form of a child grinned while looking at the fallen Zeke.
"Well, this worked out. Someone this strong would be useful if I take over their body. Being able to manifest in the material world in my true form. Those apostles found something quite interesting..."
STAB!
"KUHAK!"
At that moment, Anexi’s dagger pierced the child's back.
Simultaneously, chains connected to the dagger wrapped around the child's entire body.
CLANK CLANK CLANK!
Black smoke rose from where the chains touched.
SIZZLE!
"ARGHHHH!"
The demon caught in the soul sealing technique reverted back to their original form from that of a child.
Their appearance made it impossible to tell if they were male or female, but rather because of that, the demon revealed their true identity with an androgynously beautiful face.
"ARGHHHH!"
The demon barely raised their head to look forward through the pain.
Zeke, who they thought was completely dead mentally, was slowly getting up with the dagger still in his heart.
The demon made an expression of disbelief while looking at Zeke and said.
"H-how?"
Zeke casually pulled out the dagger from his heart.
Soon the cheap dagger he was holding changed into Bahamut.
He slowly approached the chained demon while saying.
"You really messed with my head. High-ranking Nightmare Demon, Pan."
Pan was shocked that Zeke knew his name.
"How do you know my name…?!"
Zeke approached Pan slowly and said.
"That's none of your business. What's important is."
Zeke stabbed the tip of Bahamut, heated with holy fire, into Pan's stomach.
SIZZLE!
"ARGHHHHHH!"
Pan screamed in terrible pain. Even in that state, they looked at Zeke with disbelief.
"T-this is an illusion I created. T-there's no way pain should be felt..."
"You made it based on my dream. So strictly speaking, this is my domain."
Pan's pupils shook greatly at Zeke's words.
The Nightmare Demons follow one of the fallen constellations, The Eternal Dreamer.
Among the many Nightmare Demons, Pan held the position of high-ranking demon as a direct subordinate of the constellation.
Even other high-ranking demons usually lost themselves and couldn't escape once caught in Pan's illusions.
Yet a mere human had broken through Pan's labyrinthine illusions and instead subdued them within the mind.
Zeke slowly injected holy flames into Pan's body while asking.
"What did they discover that allowed a high-ranking demon like you to manifest in the material world?"
Pan sneered at Zeke and said.
"You think I'd tell you that?! You lowly human..."
Zeke nodded while looking at Pan.
"Right, that wouldn't be fun. But you know what you did to me."
Suddenly holy fire rose around Pan's body.
Pan's face went pale seeing the holy fire burning fiercely with the power of light.
"Y-you bastard what are you planning to do?!"
Zeke put down Bahamut and took out Anexi’s dagger.
Then he wrapped Pan's mouth with chains to gag them.
"MMMMPH!"
Pan struggled and tried to escape with their gagged mouth, but it was useless.
Zeke looked at Pan while holding the dagger heated by holy flames.
"Don't worry, there's no risk of death. I'll take my time inflicting pain with great care."
"MMMMPH!"
* * *
Several hours passed with Zeke standing blankly in front of the altar.
Richmond paced back and forth anxiously while looking at Zeke.
"Ugh, why is he just standing there without any reaction? Should I really take him away?"
Richmond couldn't do anything without Zeke's orders.
At that moment, white light burst from Zeke's body.
"HUK?"
Richmond stepped back in shock to avoid the light.
Zeke, who had shown no reaction until now, opened his eyes wide.
TZZZZZ!
Then black smoke erupted from Zeke's body.
At the same time, Solomon's ring on Zeke's finger began to emit a golden light.
A message appeared before Zeke's eyes as he regained consciousness.
[The high-ranking demon Pan has been sealed in Solomon's ring.]
[You can use Pan's unique ability 'Fantasy Mirror' once per day.]
Zeke had interrogated Pan in the mental realm before sealing them in Solomon's ring.
After experimenting with Solomon's ring, it seemed possible to seal high-ranking demons and above.
When Zeke examined Solomon's ring on his finger, he saw unfamiliar characters newly engraved on the surface.
[That's Pan's seal.]
Arataso said to Zeke.
'Do all high-ranking demons have such seals?'
[Yes, most high-ranking demons are avatars of constellations. They receive individual seals like this because they can directly use constellation powers.]
Zeke nodded at Arataso's words.
Just then, Richmond who had been avoiding the light ran to Zeke.
"Master!"
Richmond clung to Zeke with a tearful expression.
"What happened? I was so worried when you just stood there for so long!"
"The apostle manifested a high-ranking demon in the material world."
Richmond was shocked by Zeke's words.
"M-manifesting a high-ranking demon? I-is that possible?"
Zeke nodded at Richmond's question.
"Yes, it seems those fallen ones found a way."
He learned quite a lot while interrogating Pan.
From how these baptism sites exist all across the continent to how they were able to manifest high-ranking demons in the material world.
"Richmond, have you ever heard of something called bloodstone?"
Richmond's eyes widened at his words.
"B-bloodstone?"
"Yes. They said they found a way to manifest high-ranking demons using those bloodstones."
Richmond's pupils trembled at Zeke's words.
He muttered to himself.
"Did bloodstones have such capabilities?"
Noticing something from Richmond's reaction, Zeke asked.
"Do you know anything about bloodstones?"
Richmond nodded.
"I-I do know about them... but bloodstones only form naturally under very specific conditions, making them almost impossible to obtain."
Richmond slowly continued his explanation.
"When blood from those who died harboring deep grudges seeps into fairy stones over a long time, they turn blood-red - those are called bloodstones."
"So fairy stones imbued with grudges."
"Yes, bloodstones found in nature mainly form when blood from wounded magical beasts seeps into fairy stones after they die there, but the probability of formation is extremely low."
"That amount wouldn't be enough for summoning..."
Then Richmond rolled his eyes and quietly said.
"W-well Master, actually... there is a way to artificially create bloodstones."
"You can make bloodstones? Is this something all dark mages can do?"
Richmond shook his head and said.
"N-no way! The method is so complicated that there's no one who can do it, and the manufacturing process itself was never revealed to the world."
Zeke tilted his head at those words.
"Then how do you know the method?"
Richmond scratched his cheek and said.
"Actually, I created the manufacturing method. HEHE."