The Hour of Worship
Minel narrowed his eyes and studied the old man closely.
Lightning streamed down the old man's face, crackling and seething, yet his expression was filled with rapture instead.
Crackle!
"Lady Urare has descended...! Everything, everything shall be purified!"
He laughed like a clown, and crackling current spilled from each corner of his mouth toward Minel.
But.
"..."
It was weaker than static electricity.
Minel casually twisted his body aside and slammed the flat of Silence's blade into the old man's face.
Flash—!
The face snapped sideways as the current scattered into empty air.
The old man's eyes stared into the void as if receiving divine revelation, blind to reality.
"Guh, hehehe...! A trial... through me, through me you are showing it to me as well..."
Even as he toppled sideways, the old man muttered as though intoxicated by something.
Minel twisted the old man's arm, pinned him to the floor, and pressed a knee into his torso.
Electricity sparked from the face and delivered an unpleasant tingle, but just as before it was no more than static.
The old man's eyes, his breath coming hard and ragged, burned not with fear but with conviction.
A twisted, misshapen conviction.
Among everything else, that gaze was the most unsettling.
"Crazy."
Minel spat the word and leveled Silence near the old man's throat.
Yet the old man paid the blade no mind at all. Instead he wore a blissful smile and whispered in a cracked voice.
"You too will soon know... Urare will... cleanse everyone..."
Minel was briefly at a loss for words.
Even though the fight was over, no sense of victory remained—only bewilderment settled in his chest.
"I won't ask again. Do you have a party?"
The old man's face shifted strangely.
His pupils suddenly rounded, his lips pursed into a circle, and focus slowly settled on Minel.
"Will you also believe in Urare?"
Conversation was utterly impossible.
He could not even tell whether this was a human or a monster to begin with.
Minel gave Hina a small gesture.
Hina approached slowly, keeping the old man in her sights.
"Keep watch."
"Yes."
Minel drew out the Backrooms Codex.
He opened the first page and examined its contents; his expression hardened into ice.
"What's written there?"
At Chori's question, Minel returned the Backrooms Codex to his inventory.
"Nothing's written."
"..."
"Neither about the old man, nor about Urare."
If the old man had been a monster, the Backrooms Codex would have displayed information on him.
In other words, the old man was human.
"Alone?"
"..."
The old man clamped his mouth shut and completely ignored Minel.
His gaze was fixed solely on Hina.
Minel tilted Silence and pressed the blue edge tightly against the old man's nape.
The blade gleamed as it brushed the skin; thin veins trembled as if they might burst at any second.
"Answer the question."
The voice was cold and expressionless.
As if ready to sever the neck at once, the tip dug deeper and deeper.
Even so the old man did not flinch.
Instead he closed his eyes and tilted his head back a fraction, unable to suppress the smile rising from within.
"If I can die before Urare... that too shall be an honor..."
Minel's brow twitched minutely.
An ordinary human would already have turned blue around the lips, yet not a hint of fear showed on the old man.
It truly seemed he would have no regrets even if he died like this.
Then Hina stepped forward.
"Wait a moment."
When Minel turned his eyes, she kept her gaze locked on the old man and spoke as if tossing the words out.
"I'll believe. In Urare."
The old man's eyes snapped open.
His expression twisted instantly into rapture.
"Aaaah...! A new believer... another soul!"
He extended a trembling hand toward Hina.
His eyes were endlessly warm, as though welcoming a prisoner bound in chains.
Hina drew a small breath, then glanced at Minel.
That look carried the clear meaning that she meant to try.
Minel tilted his head while looking at her.
The blade tip still rested against the old man's throat, yet Hina's choice puzzled him more.
"Is—is that true? Will you also believe in Urare?"
Hina regarded the old man with a quiet gaze for a moment, then answered flatly.
"Yes. I'll believe."
In that instant the old man's entire face split open as if tearing; tears welled at his wrinkled eyes.
As though he had reached the end of the world and finally seen salvation, he stretched both trembling hands toward the sky.
"O Urare...! At last... at last another soul! I accept you...!"
His voice cracked like dry gears, and his laughter creaked like mechanical noise.
When Minel eased off slightly, the old man suddenly twisted, flung both arms wide, and ran toward the wall.
As if an invisible altar stood there, he straightened his whole body and smashed his forehead against the wall.
Bang!
In that instant lightning that seemed to tear the eardrums raced along the old man's body.
Blue bolts from the wires mounted on the wall enveloped him.
Crackle—!
Zap-zap!
He received the full current, body convulsing.
Then he opened his mouth wide, turned to Hina, and spoke.
"O soul who has accepted Urare! Now receive Urare's baptism! Bring Urare's touch to your forehead and become his slave!"
"..."
"Fear not! Overcome fear with faith! Urare! Urare! Urare!"
The old man's mad cries mixed with the lightning and rang out.
His hair scorched; arms already layered with burn scars blackened under new charred marks.
Yet even then laughter never left his mouth.
He seemed to feel the agony throughout his body like the pleasure of a drug.
To think he would go so far as self-harm.
Hina drew close to Minel and muttered quietly.
"I'll deal with him."
"You're going to do that too?"
"If I don't go through with it now, it'll cause side effects instead. It's fine—I have the rubber bracelet."
Minel looked at her with an expression that asked whether she really needed to go that far, but Hina acted as if nothing were amiss and followed the old man's lead.
Fortunately, thanks to the Rare Rubber Bracelet, she was not electrocuted the way the old man was.
Watching calmly, the old man smiled with satisfaction and nodded again and again.
Then he suddenly glanced at Minel and Chori.
"And them?"
Hina smiled brightly and answered.
"They're people whose faith is still lacking. Please understand."
The old man nodded even more vigorously and declared in a loud voice.
"Almighty Urare is an extremely merciful one. He waits anytime until they are ready. But you must surely guide them onto the right path!"
"Yes, I understand."
"If you continue to receive baptisms from now on, one day a day will come when you are completely moved by Urare's grace. Only then can you say you have become a true believer! Until then, do not fear the lightning and receive it with your whole body!"
Hina nodded and carefully asked.
"I've only just come to believe, so there's a lot I don't know. May I ask various things?"
Without the slightest inkling of Hina's true intent, the old man nodded his head wildly once more.
"Of course. Though I am also an utterly lacking slave of Urare, I will tell you as much as I know."
Hina grinned and said.
"By any chance, where are the other believers?"
"They are resting at a close distance. If you stay long in the worship hall, unclean things gather as a matter of course. We're waiting until those things all disappear."
Hina's brows knitted a little.
"By worship hall... you mean this place?"
"Oho! Exactly! As expected of the young, you're smart! We offer worship here every hour on the hour. Since becoming a believer, I have not missed it even once! That is why I was over-favorably made the worship leader who leads the service!"
Every hour on the hour meant he offered worship every single hour.
In other words, he had never properly slept for more than an hour at a stretch.
Even a normal person would go mad living that kind of life.
Minel felt he was beginning to understand the old man's condition a little better.
"How do you offer worship?"
At Hina's question the old man's eyes sparkled as if he had been waiting for it.
"Everyone gathers together and sings songs to Urare, shakes their bodies and stamps their feet to move Urare's sacred wheel! Then lightning descends upon us!"
Hina's gaze shifted to the generator's turbine.
She quickly asked back.
"You move the wheel?"
"That's right! The young believers stamp their feet until their bodies break dozens of times a day, sing, and turn the wheel as they worship. Thanks to that, Lady Urare continuously bestows lightning upon us!"
"..."
"Now! It has become the hour! Now it is time to offer worship again! The time we have long awaited!"
No sooner had his words ended than footsteps began to sound from various entrances.
People also appeared one by one from three of the openings.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
One still wore the face of a young man, yet both eyes were already rolled back as he dragged his body along as if forcing his feet to move.
Another was an old woman whose dry bones stood out starkly; groans that were not prayers leaked from between her lips.
There was a child as well. The clothes hung loose, as if cut from an adult's rags, and the child waddled while muttering in imitation of a prayer.
There was also a giant with both arms grotesquely swollen. He muttered low while pounding the wall instead of praying.
From another side a man crawled on all fours with a bent waist; unceasing prayer poured from his mouth.
Men and women of every age, the old and the sick, even those still young.
All appeared in different forms, yet they shared one common trait.
Clad in old and torn clothes, covered in sweat and black stains, vacant-eyed, they chanted mad muttered prayers.
"O Urare... purify us... O Urare... purify us..."
"O Urare... purify us... O Urare... purify us..."
"O Urare... purify us... O Urare... purify us..."
The space filled with the bizarre chorus of the crowd.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Every time they walked out in step, the temporary structures shook wildly.
Minel stayed pressed close to Hina and Chori and drew his weapon, but they paid him not the slightest attention.
They jumped down through the railing to the floor and began mechanically donning the work clothes and gloves strewn everywhere.
Moving in perfect unison, they gathered around the huge circular turbine at the center.
The turbine, tangled with iron chains and gears, had long lost function and sat creakingly still.
They all looked up at the old man with expressions full of expectation.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The dozens of figures were all different, yet the smiles blooming on their faces were completely identical.
It was more terrifying than any horror encountered inside the Backrooms.
"Now! It is the time of worship!"
The old man standing on the railing raised both hands and shouted; the believers hung onto the wheel with deep smiles.
They gripped the turbine's blades with both arms, braced with their shoulders, and pushed with all their might.