I Am Your Savior

The youth answered the captain's question about Gregory's whereabouts. "If it's Gregory, he probably headed out for border patrol about an hour ago."

The captain nodded at once, then muttered under his breath. "Hmm. Then it looks like Gregory won't be joining the ritual."

"That's right. We've only got about two hours left... Should I call him back anyway?"

"No, forget it. We must always maintain our guard."

With those words, the captain turned and walked toward his quarters. His lodging was an ordinary wooden house, no different from any other member's. The only distinction lay on his table, which held several extraordinary items unlike those of the regular members: unique weapons plundered from nobles, communication magic tools, magic scrolls, and various potions. The surface was covered with expensive, battle-essential valuables.

Yet from among them, he picked up the most unremarkable object of all. A thoroughly worn metal necklace. To him, however, it was the most precious thing he owned. It was his wife's final keepsake, after all.

He gripped the necklace tightly, his shoulders trembling. Even now, the memory of the moment he lost her filled him with such rage that he could barely control his body. Those damn noble bastards. They were the root of everything.

Because of Count Arjie's absurd profiteering, their livelihood had collapsed. In the end, he couldn't afford treatment for his sick wife and lost her for nothing. The captain hadn't simply stood by until she died, though. He had gone to the government office and tearfully pleaded his case. He had even gone into debt to obtain that so-called precious regeneration potion and made her drink it. But the office had long since stopped functioning properly, and the regeneration potion had done nothing to cure his wife's illness. In the end, he had blocked Arjie's carriage, slammed his head against the ground repeatedly, and begged the man to save her just once. All he received in return was a brutal group beating. The reason? A lowly commoner had dared to obstruct a count's path.

'They all need to be wiped out...'

That was how the captain lost his wife. And when his beloved daughter contracted the same illness, he made a decision. No matter what it took, he would protect her.

At that moment, the voice echoing in his ear marked the beginning of it all. An unidentified voice claiming it would give him the power to protect his daughter. At first, he had dismissed it as nothing more than a hallucination, believing he was slowly going mad from the grief of losing his wife and the crushing weight of debt.

Yet as time passed, the captain gradually became convinced. The owner of the voice whispering to him existed somewhere in reality. Besides, he had nothing else to rely on. What could a man who couldn't even handle mana possibly do? In the end, the captain followed the voice's call and wandered without destination. To the place it summoned him. To the mountains. To the forests. To the caves. To places steeped in darkness. He kept walking.

The result was this power. The powerful demonic energy radiating from his entire body.

"Heh heh heh..."

The captain smiled with satisfaction as he looked at his blackened form. Thanks to this power, he had gained the strength to take revenge on the nobles. He had been able to gather the territory residents who had fallen into the same abyss as himself and organize a band of righteous thieves. Now his mission was to spread this power far and wide. To overthrow the damn noble society. To share the power so that every commoner could claim their rightful rights.

'I am not wrong.'

Thus he had become a priest of the 'Priest' rank. He had been granted the authority to share demonic energy with others.

"Uuuu..."

At that moment, the sound of a young girl's groan and the creaking of a bed reached his ears. His daughter, who had suffered from a long illness, was writhing in pain.

"S-Sophie...!"

The captain rushed to his daughter and examined her condition. The blue energy rising on her face told him he had missed the timing for an advanced stamina potion. He hurriedly took out one of the advanced stamina potions he had stolen from nobles and made her drink it. As her condition improved, her complexion began returning to normal.

"...Hoo."

After sighing in relief, the captain checked his daughter's condition once more. He carefully confirmed whether her breathing was steady, whether she had a fever, and whether the blue energy was spreading any further. The result showed no problems.

"...Somehow, I have to find a way."

He couldn't leave her in this state forever. Advanced stamina potions only prevented the illness from worsening. They couldn't cure it at its root.

"If only you... could receive this power as well..."

In the end, the only solution was to accept his daughter as a believer of the Salvation Cult. By giving her demonic energy, she would gain powerful bodily regeneration.

He carved the demon's symbol onto his daughter, unfolded a scroll, and prepared the ritual. After performing 'complete transformation' to raise his demonic energy to the maximum, he tried injecting it into her.

"...Kugh!"

But once again, it didn't take. For some reason, his daughter alone could not accept the demonic energy that others received without issue. Just what was the reason?

"Should I... take her to the Bishop?"

The only remaining option was to bring his daughter before the Bishop. If it was that person who had received the 'Bishop' rank, he might be able to think of a way to inject her with demonic energy.

However, the captain had put off this problem several times already. The Bishop, who only appeared once every two weeks to perform the ritual, always offered a virgin as a sacrifice and took her chastity. 'No matter if he's the Bishop... that ritual is...'

Moreover, the ritual itself was utterly grotesque. If it were simply embracing a living person, he could at least understand it. But the method was to embed a magic stone in the woman's solar plexus, kill her, and then embrace the corpse. No matter how he thought about it, violating a dead body was beyond common sense. He couldn't bring himself to mention it to the Bishop, fearing his still-virgin daughter might suffer the same fate.

Knock knock.

At that moment, someone knocked on the captain's door. Soon after, the words "It's time" came from outside. The hour for the ritual had arrived before he knew it.

"Yes, I'll be there shortly."

The captain spoke while looking at his daughter. The demon symbols carved across her writhing body were erasing themselves.

"Sophie, this father of yours will definitely save you."

With those words, he prepared for the ritual. After all, there was another way to save her: becoming a 'Bishop' himself.

"There it is."

Deep in the mountains, I stood atop a cliff, looking down at the refugee village. My suit's helmet included a telescopic function, allowing me to observe the enemy's movements even from this distance.

"The scale is bigger than I expected..."

The enemy's numbers exceeded what I had anticipated. I had assumed it would be nothing more than a band of twenty or so thieves, but including the civilians, it was a village of roughly five hundred people. Just imagining all of them becoming believers of the Demon Cult made my head spin.

"The story behind it is clear enough."

I had only scouted the refugee village for about thirty minutes. Yet that was enough for me to clearly picture the circumstances that had led to its creation. The previous lord's tyranny had shattered the local economy. The resulting pain that the territory's residents had no choice but to endure. 'These people are bound together by their hatred of the nobility.'

In the end, the mess left behind by the former lord of Argie Territory had created them. Not content with turning the diligent workers of this land into a bandit gang, it had driven them to rely on the power of demons. If they could be said to have any sin, it was only their ignorance regarding the Demon Cult.

"Fortunately, it's not too late to turn back."

They weren't yet so deeply steeped in the Demon Cult that there was no return. From what I had seen of the captain and his close aides, if they stopped accepting demonic energy and purified themselves with holy power, they could revert to their original human forms.

"The problem is..."

The problem was that there was still no one capable of handling holy power. The Demon Cult only began to run rampant in earnest when players reached their third year, which was also when individuals capable of using holy power started to appear and assist in subjugating the cult.

'Well, I can fix that, but...'

Even if I couldn't use holy power, I could still remove demonic energy. Demonic energy usually accumulated in a corrupted heart. All I had to do was cut out that heart and restore it with healing magic. Of course, the subject might die during the process and would undoubtedly experience unimaginable pain, but...

'They'll have to endure at least that much.'

It was the price of using a corrupted power. Those who held onto demonic energy for too long eventually had their egos devoured and became monsters that consumed even their own families. In that sense, dying before it came to that was practically a blessing.

"Right. Physical therapy it is!"

I had prepared a large stock of top-grade healing scrolls for situations like this. I would split open the territory residents' chests, remove their hearts, and replace them with new ones. Naturally, I would need their consent first... but how exactly was I supposed to explain that?

To save you, I need to remove your heart?

No matter how I thought about it, they probably wouldn't accept it easily.

"...If they refuse, there's nothing I can do."

I decided not to overcomplicate things. If words failed, I could always knock them out with a repulsor beam. In fact, removing the heart from an unconscious subject would be much easier.

'Above all...'

Judging from their movements, it looked like they were preparing to increase their number of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠believers by one more. I needed to act quickly before the ritual created yet another victim.

'This will be my first time using it.'

The distance between the cliff where I stood and the refugee village was considerable. To close that gap quickly, I would need to deploy the wing suit I had never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠used before.

With a burst of energy, I unfolded the jet-black wings I had never once spread until now. The flight system was still incomplete, but these wings spanning six meters on either side would more than compensate for that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deficiency.

I kicked off from the steep cliff and leaped toward the ground below.

"Everyone has gathered. Let's move to the ritual cave."

Grig looked over the low-ranking priests who had assembled for the ritual and spoke. To increase the chances of success, they needed to gather as many people bearing demonic energy as possible and offer their collective prayers. That meant bringing every warrior along was necessary.

"Hm?"

They were on their way to the cave, leading roughly sixty warriors, when one of them suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky. He pointed upward and said, "What in the world is that?"

The sun was just beginning to rise. Against its light, a black silhouette was flying toward them. One of his comrades narrowed his eyes to get a better look, then spoke. "A monster...? Isn't that a harpy? Looks like it's heading this way."

At the word "harpy," the warriors en route to the ritual cave looked up with tense expressions. Harpies were vicious monsters that primarily kidnapped women and children before dropping them to their deaths. While they posed little threat to those who could wield demonic energy, they still needed to drive the creature away to protect the villagers.

"But that... is it really a harpy?"

The closer the presumed harpy came, the more they tilted their heads in confusion. It was far too large to be a harpy, and the shape of its wings strangely reminded them of a bat.

"What... what is that thing...?"

Moreover, once it drew close enough to observe clearly with the naked eye, they could definitively conclude it was not a harpy. They had certainly never heard of harpies scattering red and blue luminescence like that.

"It's coming straight for us!"

The unidentified entity was approaching at tremendous speed. Everyone, including Grig, immediately assumed combat stances and began raising their demonic energy.

While they gathered their power, the unidentified object descended rapidly and landed on the ground. The impact kicked up a sizable cloud of dust, but every warrior, Grig included, kept their eyes fixed on it as it knelt on one knee and braced itself with one arm.

Then came the sound of precisely interlocking metal components as the wings began to retract. Grig and his men watched in stunned silence as the six-meter wings on either side folded automatically and stored themselves away. Witnessing the precision ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of future technology for the first time, they felt utterly overwhelmed by the sight alone.

Swallowing hard as they stared at the jet-black figure, they finally watched it rise to its feet. A blue light glowed from the center of its chest. Eyes that scattered crimson radiance. A hard outer shell that looked impenetrable at first glance.

'Wh-what the hell... is this thing?'

Just by looking at its appearance, Grig and his men instinctively understood. Even if all of them attacked together, they would never be able to defeat this unidentified being. And that this was no mere monster, but a transcendent entity that defied every common sense of this world.

"!!!!"

Yet the transcendent being before them even possessed intelligence. There was no visible structure that could open to form a mouth, yet it was clearly speaking to them in human language.

"Y-you... Who are you? Reveal your identity at once."

Grig asked the transcendent being's identity with a pounding heart. The more he looked at it, the more he suspected it might be the Demon Archduke he had read about in the scriptures.

Then it spoke again.