Chapter 100: Heretics Must Die
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100: Heretics Must Die
The Blue Apostle, Fainera El Pachie.
Fainel, for short. He had just been dragged into my body.
‘The performance of Spirit Chain is absolutely insane.’
Direct interference with the soul. This was a truly broken, overpowered skill.
‘To think I could actually pull someone’s soul out.’
I had originally only intended to put Helena’s soul into the Apostle’s body. Somehow, I ended up performing the extraordinary feat of extracting the Apostle’s soul entirely and replacing it with Helena’s.
‘If this isn’t just a fluke—if this is the proper way to use Spirit Chain...!’
It would become possible to take the soul of a brilliant adventurer captured in the Labyrinth and shove it into the body of a criminal slave purchased in the Labyrinth City.
‘As long as I can source sinners who have committed murder or other capital crimes...’
I could seize their bodies and grant them to the souls of deceased adventurers.
The best part about this was that the limit on the number of souls I could carry would vanish.
‘Right now, I can hold eight souls within my own body. But if I just take over bodies entirely...’
If I extract a soul and slot one of my own souls into its place, I don’t need to contain them within my own vessel.
Possessing someone while their original soul was still present had clear limitations because it wasn't a perfect fit. But if I provided a vacant vessel...
‘I can just dump the extracted souls into the Labyrinth.’
Discarding the souls of villains in the Labyrinth and granting their bodies to the souls of virtuous adventurers.
Wasn't this a kind of Labyrinth welfare project?
—W-Wait!!! You piece of trash!!! What do you plan to do with me!!!!
Fainel, dragged inside me, realized what I was thinking and began to scream and thrash about.
I tightened the Spirit Chain around him, inflicting even more pain. I made it so he couldn't even scream.
‘Shut your mouth and stay still, you damn heretic. I’ll decide what to do with you later.’
While torturing Fainel with the Spirit Chain, I spoke to Helena.
“Halcy. How do you feel?”
Since we couldn't let the Saintess discover Helena’s identity, we had agreed to call her Halcy in front of her. I had to be careful not to call her Helena by mistake.
“My head is spinning. So this is what it feels like to enter another’s body. I’ve learned something new today.”
Helena looked dizzy, but other than that, there didn't seem to be any unusual symptoms.
“Porter, is this really alright?”
“Yes. There are no problems. Look. Isn't she perfectly fine?”
Aside from the dizziness, there really were no issues.
“With this, our primary objective is achieved.”
“Has the Apostle truly joined our side?”
“Yes. To be precise, the Apostle’s soul has been removed, and an adventurer I recruited with my ability is now inhabiting the Apostle’s body.”
“A most heretical method indeed.”
Sasaro looked back and forth between me and Helena, who was in the Apostle’s body.
As he said, it was a very heretical method. But what could I do? To catch a monster, one must become a monster.
“First, let’s clear out these corpses and bring the heretics here.”
“Should we gather them in one place?”
“Yes. That would be best.”
The party began dragging the corpses toward the altar.
I sat down and continued torturing the captured Fainel.
Souls were remarkably easy to torture. I could finally understand why demons enjoyed capturing human souls and playing with them.
‘How is it? Does it hurt? Talk already.’
—Aaaaaagh!!!!
I continued the torture, tearing the limbs of the wailing soul apart and putting them back together.
However, the bastard stubbornly kept his mouth shut. It seemed he had no intention of revealing how they effectively sourced heretical sacrifices.
“Wait, Sion. Stop.”
As I was contemplating how else to torment Fainel, Helena approached.
“I don’t think there’s any need to torture him. Now that I’m in this body, I can read the general information stored within it.”
“Does that mean...”
“Yes, I’ve figured out how they receive the heretical sacrifices.”
“Oh...!”
“But we’ll definitely be found out. If we just consume sacrifices without calling for more, they’ll get suspicious. Also, since the heretics I put into the Subspace Pocket can’t be resurrected by them, they’ll definitely notice.”
“Then we need to kill as many heretics as possible, as quickly as possible.”
“Exactly. And I’ve thought of a plausible excuse for it.”
Helena suggested using the recent giant summoning incident.
We would lie and say we discovered a way to dominate monsters from the 7th floor—beyond the 6th—and that the giant summoned earlier was a failed first attempt that went out of control.
“Then, we instill the conviction that the next attempt will definitely succeed. We’ll say we’re summoning something easier to handle than a giant.”
The core of the plan was to claim the first try failed but the second would be a guaranteed success, thereby receiving a massive supply of heretics.
Helena said that after witnessing the giant’s power, those heretics would sacrifice thousands of their own if it meant they could control a monster from the same floor.
After all, they believed they could just be resurrected anyway.
“If possible...”
“We might be able to wipe out over 80 percent of the heretics in one go.”
“Wow...”
Line up over 80 percent of the heretics and behead them.
Furthermore, we would place the dead on the altar as if they were being offered as sacrifices, while I swept them into my Subspace Pocket from the side...
‘Perfect.’
We had found the fastest, easiest, and simplest way to deal with the heretics.
Making heretics sacrifice other heretics—a grand heretic beheading show.
“Saintess!”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Yes. A killer plan. Everyone, gather around. From now on, we’re going to prepare a heretic beheading show for the heretics.”
The plan was quickly approved, and Rosier and Raphael took up the executioner’s axes.
Sasaro, Paramel, and the Saintess decided to act as guards for me and Helena in case of any emergencies.
Helena would play the Apostle, and I would play Helena’s loyal servant.
The roles were assigned. Now, all we had to do was call the heretics here.
“However, there is one thing to be wary of... the existence of the one they call the Saint in Black.”
“That’s the guy who resurrects the heretics, right?”
“Yes. That’s the one.”
Just before executing the plan, Helena brought up the Saint in Black.
Currently, the heretics' leadership consisted of three Apostles, the Saint in Black, and the Yeti Chieftain.
The rank-and-file followed the Apostles' orders, and the three Apostles followed the orders of the Saint in Black, who performed the miracle of resurrection.
Furthermore, the Yeti Chieftain, who was in charge of monster taming, was said to be the Saint in Black’s right hand.
After hearing all this, the Saintess turned to Helena and asked.
“Wait, you said the Saint in Black seems to be an outsider. What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. He seems to have entered through a transfer stone connected to somewhere outside.”
“Hmm. An outside entity. A priest of a religion other than the Goddess Church... entering the Labyrinth, hiding among heretics, and using the authority of resurrection? This makes the situation much more serious. We must capture the Saint in Black.”
“The Saintess is right. The art of resurrection is an authority that only the Goddess can bestow. For an unknown entity to use that power...”
“If it were just a monster born from the Labyrinth, that would be one thing. But if an outsider can use such immense power, it means a similar resurrection spell could be used outside the Labyrinth as well...”
The Saintess, Rosier, and Paramel—the brightest minds in the Inquisitor party—all pointed out the danger in unison.
“Whether he’s the Saint in Black or the Black-hearted Saint, we just can’t let the bastard escape, right?”
“Correct, Raphael.”
“I’ll put my life on the line to catch him.”
“That’s very reassuring, Raphael.”
“Hahahaha!”
Raphael claimed he would catch the Saint in Black even if it cost him his life. He might actually have to.
This was someone who had come directly to the 5th floor via a transfer stone from outside the Labyrinth City.
Being able to roam the 5th floor without proper mana adaptation meant he came from an uncharted territory untouched by humanity.
There was no telling what kind of power he possessed or how dangerous he was.
Though, he was likely still weaker than the Saintess.
“Then let’s begin the plan. It’s getting late.”
“Yes.”
“Understood, Saintess.”
Helena, wearing the guise of the Blue Apostle, grabbed one heretic and issued an order. From that moment on, heretics began flooding toward the Altar of Resurrection prepared in the submerged land.
“Finally! Finally, my chance has come!”
“Ah! I give my life to be by Arha’s side!!!!”
“The blessing of resurrection shines upon us!”
The heretics rushed forward, excited to be the first to die.
“Now, then! The Ascension Ritual shall begin! The servant of Hati looks down upon us! Pray!!!!”
“Oh, God!!!”
Thwack—!!!!
The executioner’s axes swung by Rosier and Raphael slammed into the heretics' necks.
Severed heads fell into the baskets. It would have been faster and easier to kill them if we had a guillotine.
‘They seem awfully happy.’
The severed heads of the heretics were smiling. It was as if they considered death a blessing.
Of course, there was a reason for their behavior.
‘Thorough brainwashing.’
According to the information Helena had gathered from the Blue Apostle Fainel, the three Apostles and the Saint in Black had constantly gaslit their subordinates, telling them that becoming a sacrifice was the highest form of devotion.
They claimed that if they served through death, their god, Arha, would reward them generously and lead them to paradise at the time of destruction—or some such nonsense.
Regardless, because of that belief, the heretics came to view being sacrificed as the greatest grace. Even now, they were scuffling over who would be sacrificed first.
‘Idiots.’
Watching them blindly cry out to their god was more pathetic than it was funny.
Just then, Fainel, who was watching the dying heretics, spoke up.
—Do not... do not mock them.
‘Huh? What are you talking about?’
—They... they were people who had no other choice but this path.
Fainel began to ramble about why the heretics had come here, why they committed such acts, and why they worshipped Arha, the god of destruction.
He claimed that the majority of them were the poor—the lowest class of society abandoned by the world.
The heretic gathering was simply a collection of such weaklings that had grown over time.
They gathered because they had nowhere else to go. Because they gathered, they resisted.
Because they had no other source of power, they began to worship an evil god. And once they gained power, they had nothing else they could do.
Trapped in a cycle of misfortune, they were now becoming Labyrinth monsters, their lives a mockery.
The very existence of the heretics was a punishment and a hell in itself.
Fainel told me not to mock their deaths.
Sure, they had a tragic past. But does that erase all their sins?
I transmitted my thoughts back to him.
‘No matter how miserable your circumstances were, the atrocities you committed don’t disappear. Besides, aren't you just a dumbass who died while acting out for your own gain? Do I look stupid enough to be swayed by your words? Where do you get off trying to fish for sympathy?’
—...
‘Not everyone who faces misfortune goes around killing people, offering sacrifices, practicing cannibalism, torturing, and committing terrorism like you bastards. Thinking about it just pisses me off. Why should I care about your backstories? Fuck off.’
I had nearly died because of these bastards more than once or twice.
And yet he wanted empathy? What? Don't mock them?
Thinking about it, mocking them felt perfectly justified. No, mocking them was the natural thing to do.
‘Serves you right, you heretic bastards.’
Not a single shred of sympathy remained.
Heretics must die. I laughed at the dying bastards.
