78
Chapter 78
After the Saint had departed.
A cold silence lingered in front of the Great Temple.
Even though a considerable amount of time had passed since he left, everyone still seemed unable to gather their wits.
In a way, it wasn't strange at all.
Everyone here had sworn their loyalty to him.
After all, they had just met the very person, that great existence, face-to-face.
Moreover, he had come to judge them for their atrocious deeds.
It would have been stranger if they had managed to keep their sanity intact.
But...... Dominic took a deep breath, somehow managing to pull himself together.
There was something he needed to know.
Something he absolutely had to find out.
The Saint's final words.
Their true sin that they were unaware of.
And the punishment the Saint had bestowed upon them, something they would only understand once they faced that sin.
No matter how complicated his feelings were, he couldn't just ignore the will of God.
If the Saint had spoken, then Dominic had to carry it out.
He would never have left those words without a reason.
Dominic stood up from his spot.
'The true sin.'
The true sin that had incurred the wrath of God.
The truth they had yet to realize.
How they would be able to face it.
Where they would have to go to realize it.
That much was painfully obvious.
Cardinal Dominic looked back at the Great Temple once more.
The gruesome sight visible through the open doors.
Those corpses were undoubtedly traces of God's divine punishment. But if that were the case, there was something extremely strange.
The punishment brought down upon the people here and the people there was not the same.
But God is fair.
There was absolutely no room for doubt about that.
Then why was there such a difference?
There could only be one reason.
The weight of their sins was different.
There had to be some sort of difference between the people here and the people in the Great Temple.
What it was.
Just what kind of difference there was.
And what in the world had happened over there.
He still didn't know the answers to those questions, but....
At the very least, what he had to do right now was clear.
He helped up those who had yet to regain their senses, supporting them as he walked away.
Toward the Great Temple, drenched in blood and scattered flesh.
*****
Human organs were strewn across the floor.
Cardinal Karon's corpse was likely among them as well, but it was already impossible to tell it apart.
Mangled corpses.
Not a single trace of a human form remained on them.
The Archbishop beside him couldn't hold back any longer and gagged.
Come to think of it, it was understandable.
They might work as clergy and frequently encounter people with severe injuries, but...
How often would they ever witness such a gruesome scene?
Turf wars between back-alley gangs.
Even Dominic, who had grown somewhat accustomed to such sights from occasionally providing aid in the slums back in the Kingdom, was struggling to bear it himself.
He could feel the fury behind it.
This was a result that could never have been achieved without an immense rage directed at the victims.
If the goal had simply been to kill them, the bodies wouldn't have ended up like this.
This was the kind of outcome that only happened when the sole objective was to inflict agonizing pain.
...But this was the work of God.
It was not some petty act of revenge.
And the fair and just God would never unleash His wrath without a reason.
Therefore, this gruesome scene pointed to only one conclusion.
The sins these people had committed were so atrocious that they had driven the merciful God to absolute fury.
'Just what kind of atrocities did you commit, Cardinal Karon.......'
The more he looked around, the more the creeping sense of dread swelled within him.
A firm conviction washed over him that an unfathomably terrible atrocity had been committed here.
The most outstanding Cardinal of the Holy See.
Just what had Cardinal Karon, the man once called the most beloved human by God, been hiding all this time?
"S-sir, there's a suspicious passageway over here!"
A voice called out from a distance.
Looking in that direction, he saw a single door.
It was hidden by a high-level Illusion Magic, but for some reason, it had been left wide open.
Everyone, including Dominic, stood before it. Beyond the door, a staircase leading deep underground was visible.
This was likely a passageway leading beneath the Great Temple.
However, no one took the first step forward.
Neither the person who had discovered it, nor the others who had arrived before Dominic. They all simply stood there, blankly staring down the stairs.
The reason was simple.
They all knew.
That the sin God had spoken of was waiting for them down there.
But.......
Dominic stepped forward without an ounce of hesitation.
He had no other choice.
No matter how terrified he was.
No matter how much he didn't want to face it.
'Because he had sworn.'
To follow the will of God.
God may no longer desire such impious humans, but still.
He could not repeat the same mistakes.
And so, they headed into the depths of the Great Temple.
*****
The place they reached after descending the stairs for a long time.
It was an utterly strange place.
At first, Dominic thought.
That this must be a storage room.
The Great Temple was like the heart of the Holy See. Naturally, it would need a warehouse to store valuables.
He believed this place, hidden in secret as they had seen, was used for storing Holy Relics.
However, that was only half the answer.
"T-this can't be. This isn't how it should be......."
An elderly Cardinal in charge of the Republic staggered.
That wasn't strange either.
The Spring of Miracles.
Said to have been created through the self-sacrifice of the first Saintess.
And another Saintess had also immersed herself there before her death to gather power; it was a Holy Relic that was virtually the Holy See itself.
[If I can save people even in death, what could be a greater happiness than that.]
In that place where the words of the first Saintess were inscribed... not a single drop of Holy Blood remained.
The Spring of Miracles had run dry.
The noble will of the Saintesses, who offered their bodies to prevent future dangers, had also vanished.
And that wasn't even the end.
The Star-containing Vessel.
The Hand of Grace.
The Seal of Radiance.
Treasures of the Holy See, each etched into history, were rolling around atop the dried-up spring.
No Divine Power could be felt from them anymore.
Not just the Spring of Miracles, but every Holy Relic owned by the Holy See had lost its power.
That horrific situation.
The white-haired, elderly Cardinal screamed in an agitated voice.
He roared that that bastard Karon had committed such an atrocity because he couldn't overcome his own greed!
That Karon had arbitrarily used all these Holy Relics.
Since Karon had long been famous for his immense Divine Power.
It was obvious that his Divine Power had actually come from secretly stealing the power of the Holy Relics.
Having made the efforts of the Saintesses, who sacrificed themselves for future generations, go to waste.
And thus, it was no wonder that God had been so enraged.
But... why?
Dominic felt that it wasn't quite right. A feeling washed over him that he was missing something important.
As if possessed, Dominic walked past the spring and pressed forward.
[Special Education Room]
Before long, a door with those words inscribed on it appeared.
Wondering what on earth this room had been used for, Dominic flung it open.
An even more grotesque space welcomed him than the previous area.
It was a wide room designed to accommodate many people.
It reminded him of a theater or a performance hall.
But what sat upon the platform were torture devices.
Instruments used centuries ago to interrogate heretics, long banned for being far too inhumane.
Why?
A sense of dread washed over him.
A profoundly ominous premonition.
Dominic placed his hand on the ground and constructed a spell formula.
Perhaps due to the impact of God's descent, the memories carved into the soil of the Great Temple had been disrupted.
Fortunately, this area remained intact, likely due to its distance.
Soon, the events that had transpired here unfolded before Dominic's eyes.
Illusions of children materialized in the empty space, all of them staring up at the platform.
And upon that platform.......
There was a child.
A small child who looked no older than seven.
And that child... was dragged forcibly into the device by Cardinal Karon.
The child screamed, begging to be saved.
But no one paid any attention to that desperate plea for life.
Cardinal Karon spoke.
He told the child that this was punishment for daring to attempt an escape.
He told them to pray to God if they wished to cleanse their sins.
He claimed there was hope, since the child who had received the Stigma previously had been spared.
He promised that if they received God's love and obtained the Stigma, he would let them leave.
Cardinal Karon laughed as he spoke those words.
Blood and flesh were splattered everywhere.
The child's limbs were torn away.
Yet, no peace was ever granted.
The child's body was restored to its original form by Divine Power.
Again and again.
Over and over.
Each time it happened, the child screamed.
They pleaded for someone, anyone, to please save them.
Dominic understood now.
He couldn't have missed it.
This was the sin God had spoken of.
A sin so heavy that it could never, under any circumstances, be forgiven.