Tch. This Is Going to Be a Headache.

The phantom thief had just bungee-jumped into the lava without a rope.

Dan Miryu was beside himself.

"You crazy bastard!"

He stared down into Halemaumau Crater. The lava went on flowing, smooth and untroubled.

"……That absolute madman."

Hong Yumin was no less dumbfounded. She simply let San-gun drop from her arms. He landed lightly and set about licking his fur.

"……Aren't we supposed to save him?"

The sheer spectacle of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the suicide had, if anything, left Dan Chuyeon cold and clear-headed.

"Y-Yumin, if it's you, you could save him, couldn't you?"

Mi Soryeong stamped her feet where she stood.

"Impossible."

Hong Yumin did not soften it.

"Not even I can fish a mask out of magma. It would be hunting a needle in the sea."

"You can't even tell where he is?"

"The volcano's power makes even that no simple matter."

Dan Chuyeon offered a careful suggestion.

"If we turned all the magma inside out, couldn't we find him?"

"A fine notion. A few centuries of effort, and it might even work."

San-gun sprang up and swatted Dan Chuyeon.

"Ack!"

"Lord San-gun, come here."

San-gun pattered over and nestled back into Hong Yumin's arms.

Mi Soryeong could not shake her worry.

"Even for Mr. Phantom, magma has to be dangerous, doesn't it?"

"Soryeong. An ordinary person falls into magma and dies. Strange, is it not, to be weighing the danger at all?"

"Ah……."

Mi Soryeong clapped her hands together, helpless.

"Haa……. What do we do?"

Dan Miryu's shoulders sagged. Hong Yumin stroked San-gun.

"Hmph. You think a mask dies of so little? If he were the dying sort, he would have died long ago."

"That much is true."

Dan Miryu agreed with feeling.

"Did he say anything else?"

"He told us to look for Ilshikgyo on Mauna Loa. If they weren't there, he said to search the shadows……."

"Tch! Half-measures. And how, pray, are we meant to find them on that volcano?"

Hong Yumin turned her back.

"We go back. Lingering here is a waste of time. We have done enough."

Dan Miryu pressed a finger above his lip, resigned.

"Nothing else for it."

"I doubt we can even search Mauna Loa properly before this vacation ends."

The Dan family followed after her.

"Hm……?!"

Hong Yumin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stopped mid-step.

"What is it?"

Dan Miryu frowned, puzzled.

"The mask spoke true."

"Don't tell me……."

San-gun leapt from Hong Yumin's arms. The cat-sized body swelled, and a tiger stood there fit to command heaven and earth.

"Ready yourselves. They have noticed us as well."

Dan Miryu's necklace poured strength into him. Mi Soryeong's eyes went sharp, and Dan Chuyeon drew a breath.

Beyond the horizon a company of people appeared: a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠procession with a black sun upon their chests.

It was Ilshikgyo.

The Saintess realized there were others near Halemaumau Crater.

"Those people……."

She narrowed her eyes. As the distant figures drew nearer, their shapes grew clear.

"Why are they here?"

She was startled. Were these not the Korean tourists who had put down the villains at the hotel?

"No coincidence, then……."

Halemaumau Crater was closed to entry. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was a place for viewing the crater from a distance, and yet Korean tourists stood planted squarely on the spot, as if they had been waiting.

Did the information leak?

It should have been impossible. Still, with interlopers in the way, the suspicion was real enough.

Ah. How harsh a trial the Morning Star has given me.

To have to suspect her own brethren—was there any ache to match it? Even so, she would overcome this too. Trials had always come with tremendous hardship, and those who stood in the way of the Eclipse God's revelation were the greatest hardship of all.

The Saintess weighed it. Should she fight them here?

Looked at coldly, the Koreans' strength was considerable. The madman in the mask was nowhere to be seen, but those who remained were threat enough. The most dangerous of them was the red-haired woman. Handling villains like children was a feat even most heroes of the highest rank could not manage. The boy was a greenhorn who could not deal with a single villain, and the other two were unknowns, though it was safe to assume they were ordinary heroes. Why there was a tiger, she had no idea.

Her own side, by contrast, was not whole. The knight order under her direct command had scattered to survey the Big Island, and the faithful who had followed her were merely ordinary elites. Asked whether it was wise to fight with barely a dozen of them, Saintess included, the answer was no. Their purpose was not purification. It was the fulfillment of the revelation.

I should withdraw.

Just as she reached that decision—

Eclipse God……?

The great god held her back. He made his will known: she was to face the trial and fight.

"Ah! I understand!"

The Saintess's cold reason vanished. Fanaticism took its place.

A roar went up.

The Saintess ran at their head, and the red-haired woman at the front of the other side came out to meet her.

"Hmph! So this is Ilshikgyo!"

"Die!!!"

The flail crashed against an invisible barrier and stopped. Fire crept up the membrane, inch by inch.

"What a vicious flame. The mask was right. Your god does exist."

"By what sorcery do you address me?!"

The Saintess leapt back. She shook her head, trying to drive out the Korean that forced itself into her understanding.

"That does not mean you cannot hear me, child."

"Then I'll simply burst your head!"

The ground tore open beneath her charge. She swung the flail again.

The barrier shattered with a crack.

"You do have some strength."

"Graaaaah!"

That ease infuriated her. A pig, of all things!

"Does an ignorant pig dare mock me?!"

"I am neither particularly ignorant, nor a pig, but……."

Was the pig part fair? She had been eating rather too well of late. The weight had crept on.

A flat thud.

"Kh!"

The red-haired woman's bare hand stopped the flail. Flame climbed her arm in a rush.

"Of all the outlandish fires. What manner of god scatters filth like this upon the world?"

"Filth?! You dare insult the Eclipse God's grace!"

The flail unraveled. Black flame thinned into a serpent and wound around the woman.

"Count it an honor! The Eclipse God's grace shall burn you!"

The woman went up in flame, greater even than the lava burning below.

The Saintess smiled in triumph. The Eclipse God's fire burned everything, no matter what it was. A foolish human would have even their soul incinerated, unfit for hell itself.

"Yes. Only now does it truly feel real."

"What!"

The Saintess gasped. The woman who ought to have been dead opened her mouth.

"True enough. If Heaven exists, why should there not be other gods? I come on vacation and learn all manner of things."

The black flame gathered into a single mass. The Saintess's hand went numb. She had lost control of it.

"Child. This fire is enough to harm me, but your standing falls short."

Only lightly scorched, the woman looked down on the Saintess with arrogant calm. In those eyes the Saintess felt a span of time beyond reckoning—a vastness that made her own life seem trifling.

The immortal snuffed out the evil god's fire.

"Are you finished? Over there, it seems they already are."

"……."

Hearing nothing around her, the Saintess turned her head.

"Mom, are you all right? Part of your clothes burned."

"So they did. And this was an expensive outfit."

"We can just buy another later."

"I said I'm fine."

"Grrrnn."

Every believer who had followed the Saintess lay fallen.

"Ugh…… Saintess, forgive us……."

"How bitter. How bitter……."

"Morning Star. Have mercy……."

The Saintess's face hardened. Weaker than the main force they might have been, but every one of them was an elite blessed by the Eclipse God. How?

"You thought to face us with a mere dozen? Well. Had the black flame worked, I suppose you might have had the confidence for it."

The Saintess's gaze went to the necklace at the green-haired man's throat. The brilliant green light it shed had trampled the faithful's grace without mercy.

"A pity the match was a poor one. My condolences."

"……Impossible."

Tears of blood ran from the Saintess's eyes.

Captured, like this? Here? How am I to face the Church Lord? My brothers and sisters? The Eclipse God? What becomes of the revelation?

"Eclipse God, an answer! Grant me an answer!"

The vast presence within her chest gave her one.

"Ah……!"

"This is bad……!"

The Saintess's tears of blood caught black flame.

"Eclipse God! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Eclipse God!!!"

Every believer of Ilshikgyo went up in black flame.

"Come here!"

At the red-haired woman's frantic cry, the Saintess spat a curse.

Black flame swallowed her, and her form began to vanish. With that howl of fanatic faith, Ilshikgyo disappeared.

"……Tch. This is going to be a headache."

The woman swept a hand back through her hair. Her burned hand stung.