A True Miracle (1)

Sam hesitated again and again before finally forcing the words out.

"Raul... sir?"

At that, Raul, the holy knight who had come down from Ghul Hill, blinked in surprise for a moment.

Then he looked at his own arms and the New Moon Blade in his hand, let out a dry laugh, and said, "Just do it the way you always do. Please."

The look on Raul's face was so hollow, so disappointed, that Sam found himself thinking that Raul almost seemed sad.

So he immediately slapped both of his cheeks, hard. "Right. Raul. I won't ask about the details. You're my benefactor anyway, and you were a shaman and a mage too."

"Thanks."

"Anyway, can I ask you to take command calmly? I've hunted wild animals and bandits my whole life, but I haven't seen steel corpses like these in nearly twenty years."

"Is that so."

At Raul's lukewarm response, Sam added one more thing. "Like it or not, nobody here is going to disobey you."

He pointed toward the Ghul Hill, where more than a dozen corpses lay stacked on top of one another.

As Raul scanned the surroundings, he saw every militiaman who met his eyes swallow hard and nod.

"Fine. Then I'll count on you. From here on out, I go alone."

"What? Raul. No matter how you put it, that's not right. Right from the entrance, a dozen steel corpses come swarming out, and no matter how righteous Motala's hammer is, even you--"

Sam tried to stop him, looking startled.

No matter how exceptional Raul was, and no matter how weak the militiamen might be, someone had to be there to guard his back against such terrifying numbers.

But Raul shook his head.

"Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying I'm going to sacrifice myself or anything."

"You're not?"

"No. I'm going into that underground cave and running straight for the black mage. There'll probably be ten of them, maybe twenty or more if we're unlucky, crawling out like before. Stop them from getting outside. That's your job."

At Raul's words, Sam's face stiffened, but the corners of his mouth lifted.

"Well... Looks like I'm getting dragged into a holy war I never signed up for."

"You didn't sign up for it? You're a believer in the Earth Mother."

"Damn it, right. I was, wasn't I. Earth Mother Christ. Fine. We'll hold the line here with our lives. Go."

Raul looked at the militiamen, all of them tense but none of them making the slightest move to run, and gave a small laugh.

There was no need to worry about what they feared.

Raul had no intention of letting a single undead slip through.

***

The slope of the cave, already steep to begin with, grew steeper with every step downward until it was almost vertical.

Gyaaah?!

Even then, the ghouls kept climbing upside down along the sheer outer wall of the cave to interfere with him, but it was no problem.

Every ghoul that appeared had, without exception, poured all their growth into one thing alone: skin hardness.

Before Raul's Holiness, they were no different from zombies with slightly quicker movements.

In Exeria, ghouls were zombies that had been given a specific skill and leveled up.

The monster skill those ghouls probably had was Hard Skin.

The fact that every ghoul appearing shared the same skill meant, in other words, that they had the same creator.

Necromancy, in other words.

The power of the three great evil gods, represented by the Abyss, the Void, and Chaos.

Among them, that was the authority the beings of the Abyss commonly handed over when making contracts with humans.

-The spinal fluid spilled here shall make the Abyss Duke smile.

-Ahh, Abyss Duke!

Coincidence or not, that was exactly what the devil contractors Raul had met in the city of Zern had said as well.

A coincidence...? No, no way.

Raul knew the demon lord who had built up influence in the western region of Exeria and was called an Abyss Duke.

Velvet Batbatitus.

He was infamous for enjoying nothing more than chewing humans alive...

The Abyss Duke who appeared as the final boss when playing the four-star class Demon Hunter.

But the bastard should have already met his end once at the hands of the playable character, Demon Hunter Kyle.

How did he come back?

The era of Demon Hunter Kyle and the era of Saint Raul were separated by roughly thirty years.

And yet thirty years was nowhere near enough time for a bastard like an Abyss Duke to resurrect.

Then Raul suddenly thought of something.

No, what if he hasn't reached complete resurrection yet? What if he's been gathering more and more contractors to collect the groundwork for it?

Raul stopped walking for a moment and looked ahead.

The abundant life force of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this land, blessed by Mimir.

If the information Raul had been given was correct, then the black mage ahead of him had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠siphoning that life force for at least three years.

And yet...

No matter how thick the curse and how much demonic energy there is, it's still nowhere near enough to explain three years of draining Mimir's blessing.

Raul had already swept his holy-infused gaze across the entire underground cave with ease.

When he combined his veteran knowledge with the information laid out before him...

Looks like it's real.

The Abyss Duke was planning a resurrection.

And not from the Demon Realm, but right here in Exeria, by gathering flesh and blood.

He hadn't even gotten past the first chapter of the Saint's unique quest, and yet Raul had unexpectedly stepped into something much larger, a more tangled plot and conspiracy.

"What a pain in the ass, seriously..."

In the first place, this was not Raul's mission.

Even in the game, and even in this world, the one who was always supposed to oppose an Abyss Duke was a Demon Hunter.

What the hell are you doing, Demon Hunters?

That thought came to him immediately.

What broke Raul out of his reverie was a message.

It was a curse he knew well.

However, saints were fundamentally resistant to curses.

That was the basic effect of the Saint's unique power, Halo.

Before long, the blackness that had begun creeping in from the edges of his vision returned to normal.

Raul decided once again that it had been the right call to leave the militiamen behind.

If they had been here, they would have gone blind within seconds.

"Unbelievable..."

From far ahead, a voice full of shock rang out.

Raul stopped walking. Narrowing his brow, he sharpened his gaze and made out someone in a deep black robe, hood pulled low over their face.

"Why won't the curse work on you, holy knight."

"Didn't expect you to show yourself directly."

"Warrior, warrior. A broken hammer that cries only for justice and has forgotten mercy, nobility, and honor."

"What, bastard."

The black mage flinched at Raul's indifferent response, then abruptly threw both hands up.

"I am a follower trusted with the full favor of the Duke himself. I am called Tod."

"I didn't ask."

"...Don't be like that. Listen to me, broken hammer. You must have come here to judge me, after seeing the rotting abundance of this land?"

"Something like that."

Raul kept answering, and perhaps thinking the conversation was working, Tod's face brightened all at once.

"I have already finished my business here. I obtained what I needed, and I have no regrets now."

"So?"

"Could we not simply go our separate ways? I do apologize for the Duke's growing influence and the turmoil it has caused on the surface. If I withdraw, everything will be restored within five years. So..."

He talked at length, but what the bastard was really saying was this:

Couldn't Raul just let him go?

In any case, the matter had already grown so large that not even Raul's absence would have changed the fact that a knight had been dispatched.

Since things had come to this, Tod had clearly intended to move his hideout even before Raul arrived.

So if things could end peacefully with words, how wonderful would that be?

Of course, the only one who would benefit from that was Tod.

"Hey."

Raul wiped the smile clean off his face as he opened his mouth.

"If I'd fallen to your curse, you'd have killed me on the spot, wouldn't you?"

"If I had known you were a broken hammer, I wouldn't have cast the curse at all. I'm serious."

"Hah. You're full of shit. So the curse didn't work, and now you're just running your mouth."

Whoosh-!

Once more, Raul ignited a fleeting flash of light in the dark underground cavern.

From the crook of his arm to the tip of the New Moon Blade, pure white radiance flashed again.

Tod's brow furrowed.

"We will surely inflict mortal wounds on one another, holy hammer."

"Thanks for the concern. I'm touched."

"Our battle will, without question, only bring loss to us both--"

Raul didn't wait to hear the rest. He kicked off the ground in a surprise attack.

Boom-!

His foot, strengthened by divine power and the light of Holy Armor, smashed the cave floor, and Raul appeared like lightning right in front of Tod, who had only been a tiny shape in the distance a moment ago.

"R-Rembrandt!"

Startled, the black mage suddenly shouted an unexpected name.

It was the name of the knight Tod had supposedly kidnapped yesterday.

Ignoring that, Raul swung the New Moon Blade in a wide arc, but something erupted from beneath the ground in a spray of dirt and blocked his sword.

Clang--

A heavy ring and a numbing shock washed over Raul.

When he was knocked back and regained his stance with a falling technique, the obstruction beyond the cloud of dirt revealed its true form.

"Help meeeee."

It was Rembrandt.

The two legs, two arms, and one head were unmistakably the knight Raul knew, but the rest was not.

"Ha ha ha! Surprised? A wonderful set of materials happened to fall into my hands yesterday!"

A chimera ghoul with four arms, six legs, and two heads.

Only after seeing Raul frown did Tod allow a smile to creep onto his lips.

"That's why I said we'd only lose from fighting each other! Didn't I tell you? Broken hammer!"

"Krrruuuuuuuuaaaagh!"

At Tod's gesture, Rembrandt-- no, the twin-headed ghoul that had once been Rembrandt-- charged forward at terrifying speed.

Its six legs gave it the propulsion of a horse, and the bastard, with a body the size of a bull, closed on Raul in an instant.

"!"

Grinding his teeth, Raul raised the New Moon Blade on a diagonal.

Rattle-rattle! Rattle!?

The next instant, terrible brute force crashed down on him.

Sparks flew everywhere in a spray of red, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chimera Rembrandt's assault came on relentlessly, leaving Raul no room to counter.

Clang-!

Screeeech-!

The moment their blades met, he knew it.

This was not an enemy he could deal with using a mere Lv.1 holy weapon.

After deciding that, Raul quickly lowered his body and targeted the other legs fused to Rembrandt.

The undead legs, stripped of the knight's unique aura, were split cleanly apart by the New Moon Blade's smooth edge.

"Gwaaaahhh!!"

Rembrandt screamed in pain.

Raul stared at the hideously transformed man for a moment.

Honestly...

He had been useless to the very end.

Still, seeing him like this made Raul feel a little sorry for him.

How should he bring him down?

But as Raul rapidly ran through tactics in his head, something caught his eye.

"Ah."

There was a large crack running through the middle of the New Moon Blade, the one he'd received as a "gift" from some peddler.

That was a bad sign.

The reason holy knights insisted on hammers in the first place was because of things like this.

Thin blades simply couldn't endure Motala's blessing for long.

"Haah."

Raul immediately leapt backward, putting distance between himself and Rembrandt.

The range of choices had just narrowed.

As if that weren't enough, the black mage Tod had already summoned two more twin-headed ghouls.

"Die, regretting your foolish choice! Holy hammer!"

Following his shriek, the now-three ghouls climbed the cave wall and rushed in.

Their approach was annoyingly perfect, from the front and left and right.

If he tried to meet them head-on again, the New Moon Blade might break, and this time his life might genuinely be in danger.

Raul's decision was immediate.

Halo, release.

He chose to pull out the most powerful weapon he had kept in reserve, the one with the highest risk, and end the matter in an instant.

At Raul's murmur, an absurd number of message windows erupted before his eyes.

The warnings kept piling up, and the red caution lines came one after another, but the meaning was simple enough.

At his current physical state, Raul could not properly handle a released Halo.

On the contrary, it would leave fatal injuries on his body.

So the time Raul was allowed to keep the Halo released without crossing into death was only 5.3 seconds.

But...

"Five seconds is more than enough."

"What are you muttering about, huh!"

With Tod's cry of certainty in victory, the two claws and the sword of one ghoul knight came within arm's reach.

Blows that could not be dodged, not even by the width of a finger joint, came flying in.

However, to Raul, who had released Halo, that was no longer a problem.

Thunk--!

A tremendous roar rang out beneath Raul's feet.

Immediately after, behind his back, a colossal pillar of light rose as if it would pierce the heavens themselves.

"Wh-?!"

"Gwaa--"

The black mage and the ghoul knight noticed the anomaly and voiced something at the same time, but that brief utterance became their final words.

The massive pillar of light took shape.

The released Halo.

Merely witnessing it was enough to burn the eyes of every corrupt thing in this world. Merely existing in the same space as it was enough to melt their entire bodies. It was the true miracle.

Black mages and ghouls, draped in the divinity of Halo, were erased without leaving even a speck of ash behind.

"Hah! Haaahh!"

Two seconds after Halo's release.

Raul, having swiftly drawn back that unbelievable true miracle, panted hard, feeling the violent hammering of his heart.

Two seconds.

It had really been only two seconds, but the veins in Raul's eyes stood out, and bright red blood ran from his nose in a thin stream.

"Haaah..."

Taking another deep breath, Raul wiped the blood from his nose.

When he looked around, the miasma had been purified so completely it was as if it had never existed in this land at all.

"I didn't exactly... plan to go this far. Haa, whooo..."

That had been like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken.

Still, since there really was no other option, it had been unavoidable.

"Forget every other power for now. I need to raise my stats first... This really isn't going to work."

Raul felt his consciousness beginning to blur, so he deliberately kept muttering to himself.

Fortunately, his near-cutoff mind slowly came back into place.

He had an enormous headache and dizziness, and his entire body was trembling with muscle pain, but...

"Not passing out is progress enough."

After a short rest, Raul slowly looked over the fairly large underground hideout.

Soon he discovered a bookshelf, a beaker, and various experimental tools tucked away in an odd corner.

He picked up the book spread open on the table and read its contents.

"Spinal fluid from a pure virgin, spinal fluid from a noble knight, spinal fluid from an innocent child, the heart of a mage of third circle or higher whose limbs were cut off while still alive, and..."

Let's stop there.

Abyss Duke.

Did that bastard have some kind of spinal-fluid fetish or what? Wherever he went, he kept hunting down human spinal fluid.

Still, that was probably why a sick bastard like that had been marked as a mortal enemy by a psychotic group like the Demon Hunters.

He searched the surroundings a little more.

How long had he been walking around like that?

Soon he found a path leading even lower than this underground chamber.

Beyond the iron bars there were several people Raul knew by face, all collapsed unconscious.

The bastards from the Red Claw Mercenary Corps, and Jack, the youngest militiaman, who had been the reason Sam had been forced to come this far.

"At least that's a relief."

He checked that they were breathing, and the corners of his mouth lifted faintly.

After locating the survivors, Raul headed toward the militiamen guarding the entrance.

His condition wasn't good enough to carry these people back by himself, no matter what.

-Thud.

Then, as he passed the bookshelf he'd gone by earlier, something caught at his foot.

"Hm?"

Looking down, he saw what appeared to be a rather sturdy box.

His interest was piqued.

Inside that box, for reasons ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Raul couldn't understand, he could feel both dense demonic energy and the warm divinity of abundance at the same time.

Of course, divinity and demonic energy were like water and fire, energies that could not coexist.

And yet it's feeling both at once?

A thin, vicious smile rose to Raul's lips.