Chapter 197: Punish Us
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 197: Punish Us
When Yohan opened his eyes, the civilization on Earth he had destroyed had been restored to its original state. There was only one person who could do such a thing, so Yohan went to find her immediately.
Evangeline, who was brushing her teeth, let out a small "Ah-" as if she'd forgotten something. After rinsing her mouth, she tossed out a casual remark.
"The TV wasn't working, so I fixed it~"
She said it so lightly, as if she'd just fixed a broken appliance, but Yohan, knowing the true weight of her actions, simply nodded without a word.
He had thought she would be grieving over humanity's betrayal, but was that just his arrogant assumption? For witches, was even sadness just a fleeting amusement?
Feeling that his efforts had been in vain, he slumped onto the sofa, drained of strength. He glanced down at Evangeline as she hugged him.
"...Teacher? What's wrong?"
"Hmm- Yohan, you seem a little sulky? You're not mad that I changed everything back without asking, are you?"
"Of course not. No matter what you do, Teacher—there's no way I could ever be angry with you."
Of course, if Evangeline truly wanted to make Yohan angry, she easily could. All she had to do was abandon him and embrace another man.
But at the same time, he knew she would never do such a thing. That knowledge was the source of his words, of his composure.
Understanding the hidden meaning in Yohan's words, Evangeline smiled shyly and rested her head between his thighs.
"Ah, the TV's on."
Resting her head on his lap, she stared blankly at the program on the screen. Surprisingly, it was a live broadcast. It was astonishing, considering that just last week, hundreds of thousands of people had died and civilization had briefly ground to a halt.
Humans were foolish and arrogant, but perhaps that was why they didn't break so easily. Look at them now. Whether it was to forget the sorrow of the disaster or for some other reason, he couldn't say—but weren't they slowly finding their smiles again?
Forcibly turning away from the wounds inflicted upon them. It was something other creatures couldn't do.
"Ahaha-! Yohan, isn't this hilarious?"
"Ah, yes. It's funny."
Perhaps the reason Evangeline had recovered from her sorrow so quickly was because she, too, possessed that very human quality—Yohan found himself thinking.
*
Having regained their satellites, humans quickly launched new ones into space, allowing them to identify the mysterious satellite floating there.
It was, astonishingly, a seamless, single-piece satellite with no screws or connection ports. Its compact design made it immediately clear that it was not a product of human technology.
It was only natural that greed would follow. Several nations attempted to seize the satellite, employing both hacking and physical force.
"—Damn it."
"What's wrong?"
"The internet is down again."
And, as expected, they were immediately retaliated against. China and Russia only gave up on physical contact after a double-digit number of their rockets were destroyed, and they only abandoned their hacking attempts after all their own satellite signals were cut off.
Using a VPN or attempting to hack from abroad was useless. The owner of that satellite acted as if they knew exactly who was touching their property.
When they realized that a hacking attempt by a Chinese American in California had cut off the internet in China, they thought they were going to lose their minds.
Furthermore, it wasn't just government agencies in an uproar.
[—He has descended! To punish the wickedness of this world! To tear down the Tower of Babel that humanity has built once more!]
Yohan's form, wreathed in a creature of terror, was horrifying enough to incite fear, but it also evoked images of the angels described in the Bible.
Not the beautiful, winged angels people often spoke of, but terrifying beings that made one doubt and doubt again.
Yohan, clad in such a being, was revered as a messiah descended to Earth. Seizing the opportunity, several cults began to worship him and poured out onto the streets.
"Receive divine punishment! Believe in our leader and receive your punishment in advance!"
"We are all sinners! If you don't want to fall into hell, you must be punished beforehand!"
Quoting Yohan's words about coming to deliver punishment, these religious figures claimed they were sinners who needed to cast off their sins in this mortal world. They easily brainwashed people who had yet to recover from the disaster.
While countless people fell for the cults and wasted their lives, the leaders who gathered them reaped the benefits.
"Khuhu—what a bunch of idiots. What apocalypse? What messiah?"
Kim No-il, the leader of the cult, smirked as he looked at the cash and gold bars piling up daily in his warehouse.
In an age overflowing with fools, a great disaster had struck at just the right time. Seizing the moment, he had played on people's emotions and become a cult leader.
As a smart man, he couldn't comprehend falling for such a cult, but he could certainly exploit it. It wasn't wrong to plunder and exploit idiots, was it?
It was the law of nature for the weak to be devoured by the strong. It was also the law of nature for the foolish to be exploited by the clever.
'The squawking of these idiots is annoying... but I guess I can put up with it.'
Having received intelligence that the police and prosecutors were poking around his religion, No-il headed for the Room of Atonement, contemplating how to strike back.
The Room of Atonement (감죄실, Gam-joe-shil), whose name meant "to reduce sin," was a room for those who believed they had sinned. No-il used it as a place to satisfy his sexual desires.
Young, pretty women who believed they were sinful. No-il was simply relieving them of their sins. He just happened to gain a little something in the process.
"Ooh?"
Entering the room, the cult leader let out a sound of admiration at the sight of a short, blonde woman whose breasts were even larger than those of most adults.
She looked like a Westerner. He was impressed that his followers had managed to lure in a woman like this.
'They say big breasts mean an empty head.'
The fact that the girl looked to be about middle school age wasn't particularly important. As they say, the bigger the breasts, the better, and the younger the age, the better.
A young woman with large breasts was the best kind of woman. Clearing his throat with a "hhm-hhm," No-il carefully began to speak to her.
"Welcome. What sin have you committed?"
"—Who the hell is this asshole?"
"You speak Korean well, I see. But your words are coarse, as if you weren't taught properly. I see. So that is your sin."
"Hah—so annoying, always giving me these kinds of jobs... Are you Kim No-il?"
"Mm, that is correct. I am Kim No-il, the leader of the Original Sin Church—"
As he spoke, No-il felt something was off and stared at the girl before him. It wasn't strange that she knew his name, but to say it so casually?
If she was stupid enough to come to a place like this, his followers should have brainwashed her properly—a process that included instructions not to speak his name so carelessly.
That meant the girl before him either hadn't been brainwashed or had come here specifically to see him.
"Ah, you figured it out?"
Sensing the tension and fear emanating from No-il, Hekaterina grinned and transformed her hand into a monster's maw.
Seeing this, No-il let out a bizarre, unearthly scream and stumbled backward. His heavy body lost its balance, and he fell flat on his back. He then scrambled on all fours, desperately trying to crawl out of the Room of Atonement.
"Hyaaaaaaaaaaah—!!"
"It's no use trying to run."
"Huuugh—! S-someone! Is anyone there! Help, help meeee—!"
No-il screamed desperately, but the Room of Atonement had been built for a certain purpose and was soundproofed to prevent any noise from escaping.
The very design of the room that had aided him in indulging in countless women was now, ironically, tightening the noose around his own neck.
Standing before the cult leader, who was pissing himself, Hekaterina brought the monster's maw close to his face and said playfully,
"Boo—!"
"Ah."
CRUNCH—!
In that moment of shock, the moment fear completely shattered his mind, Hekaterina's arm devoured the cult leader's head.
Hekaterina looked down at the corpse, bored, and began to grumble.
"I thought he'd put up a fight since he was a cult leader... Why does every Tom, Dick, and Harry call themselves a cleric here?"
Realizing her mission from Makina was complete, Hekaterina received an additional order to clean the entire place out before returning. She kicked open the door of the Room of Atonement and rushed out.
When a single girl burst out of the room the leader had entered, the followers, assuming it was a common escape attempt, moved to grab her. But they froze in their tracks when they saw her arm.
"—Ehe. Seeing that reaction, you guys... you've done this often, haven't you?"
Trash. Before her stood people who committed evil.
Realizing this, Hekaterina grinned and fully transformed her arm into that of a monster.
Before the criminals who committed evil, a monster appeared to ravage them with evil.
Without hesitation, Hekaterina slaughtered them, continuing her cleanup. A short while later, the inside of the building was spotlessly clean, without a single piece of trash remaining.
*
The witches were dealing with the humans who used their names for profit, but there was a limit to what they could do.
There were also those who, not for profit but genuinely moved by Yohan's punishment, committed suicide or caused incidents. Such people were impossible to stop.
The director of a research institute in China was one such person. The director, who had always been dissatisfied with the Party, was overjoyed after seeing the video of Yohan, which hinted at a Christian entity.
You said that the sins of humanity pierce the heavens.
Oh, sinful humanity.
I shall burn this body to become your aid.
"If I just press this, I can go to heaven too...!"
The sins I have accumulated by killing humans.
I shall repay them by killing sinners.
That day, an explosion occurred at a research institute in China. The authorities covered up the incident as if nothing had happened.
However, they couldn't stop the biological weapon released from the institute from spreading across the globe. And so, the China-born pandemic began.