The Saintess Who Brought Back the Light
Schk—.
After the sound of something being cut apart rang out, a change came over the body that had long been condemned to darkness and silence.
Fwoooosh—.
Light poured in. Through my eyes, the shapes of things finally took form.
I met the gaze of eyes shining gold.
Huh?
I could see?
“Huh? Wh-what? I can see? Why?”
Startled, I lifted a hand to my face. The hand that should have been bound fast in iron chains moved freely.
That wasn’t all. Every sensation in my body was returning to normal.
It had been so long since I’d felt the freedom of my own flesh.
What had happened?
Who was the person standing in front of me just now?
Had he rescued me?
My brother?
No, he wasn’t my brother.
With those long ears, he had to be an elf.
Besides, someone that handsome couldn’t possibly be my brother.
Then who was he... and why had he saved me?
“Jayeon!!”
A group of kids with hair colors like traffic lights, along with a girl with cat ears, ran toward the fallen man.
Ja... yeon? So that was his name.
Jayeon.
Yes, I’d remember it.
I would never forget.
“Jayeon got taller!”
“His face looks weird too! He looks like an adult!”
“I-is he dead?”
The children chattered noisily, one after another.
How lively they sounded.
If things had been normal, would I have been like that too?
But there was no meaning in thinking about that now.
I had only one thing to do.
I gently pushed aside the green-haired boy blocking my way.
“Excuse me, could you step aside for a moment?”
“Huh? Who are you?” the green-haired boy asked.
“Me? You can call me Hayang. Kim Hayang.”
That had been my name before I was dragged here.
A name I had almost forgotten because I hadn’t heard it for so long.
“Oh, really? Wait! That’s not important right now! Jayeon—!”
The man who had saved me had cracks all over his body.
He looked as if he might shatter like porcelain at any moment.
If this goes on, he’ll be left with permanent damage. Do you want to save him?
The voice I had heard since childhood.
The voice I hadn’t heard ever since I was kidnapped here and forced to accept that black energy.
It was speaking to me again.
“Of course I do.”
Not just once now—I wanted to save him always, from now on too.
He was the one who had given me back the light of the world.
I had never thought I’d be able to open my eyes and see the world again.
After my parents died, I was kidnapped by a strange organization.
After that, that witch always injected some bizarre energy into me.
The more energy went into me, the more my body changed.
I became a monster.
The moment I realized that, the voice I’d heard since childhood disappeared.
I heard my brother had been forced to cooperate with this organization in order to save me.
“C-can you save him? Jayeon isn’t dead yet, right?”
The green-haired child asked me with tears and snot streaming down his face.
These children were surely the ones my brother had kidnapped.
And this person who had saved me too... probably as well.
So that’s why you want to save him? Out of pity? Guilt?
No, it wasn’t pity.
And it certainly wasn’t guilt.
The moment that man pulled me back out into the world, I heard the voice again.
For a long time, I had thought that voice was a curse.
The witch said I was the last saintess left in the world.
That the reason my spirit was so unusually strong,
the reason I could endure miasma,
the reason I had been kidnapped in the first place—
was all because of that.
Then do you resent it?
“No. Neither I nor the owner of this voice did anything wrong. Rather than resentment... I want to give thanks.”
Because of that power, hadn’t I met this person?
Maybe I had endured everything for this day.
Hahaha! Is that so? Then what are you hesitating for? Aren’t you a saintess? Then the answer is already decided, isn’t it!
Save him!!
A great voice reverberated through the cavern.
The children flinched at the thunderous sound.
“W-what was that! What’s happening now?”
Water and fire-like forces gathered around the children as they regained their magic.
“Please stay still.”
All their tension melted away in the face of my voice.
It was a voice so full of sanctity that it made people lower their heads without meaning to.
“It’s not dangerous.”
In front of Jayeon, I knelt and prayed.
The children could not say a word at the sight.
In the quiet cavern, a declaration filled with the will to save someone rang out.
“Please, save this person. Let no one harm him.”
Then what will you sacrifice?
“I will give my life. I will sacrifice my life for this person.”
Good! Then help this child and win the war! That is my condition!
Fwooooosh—!
“W-what is this!!”
A brilliant light covered the children’s eyes.
It wasn’t so much that the light was too bright; it was as if they simply had no right to look, and their eyes were forcibly shut.
That light gathered into a single point and flowed into Jayeon.
The radiance that wrapped around Jayeon’s body also seeped into Yehwa in his arms.
“Haah, haah.”
Cold sweat poured down my entire body.
I felt like I might collapse at any second.
But I wanted to see him stand up before I fell.
Twitch—.
Jayeon’s eyelids fluttered.
“Jayeon!”
As Jayeon showed signs of waking, the children around him started bustling about in a panic.
They all crowded around him.
Flash—.
Jayeon’s eyes snapped open.
“What happened? I’m sure I...”
He brushed a hand once over the dragonian girl’s cheek beside him, then turned his gaze to me.
“You were the one who restored me.”
Ah.
Yes. Those were the eyes.
I had wanted to see those eyes again.
Overcome by the draining exhaustion, I closed my eyes.
The final voice that tickled my ears.
Before my consciousness faded, I wanted to say just one thing—just one thing.
“...Thank you.”
“Heh, this little brat... thank you. Now rest.”
It wasn’t the neutral voice that had echoed in my head,
but a pleasant low voice.
“Yes...”
I thought I might finally be able to have a peaceful dream again.
***
Bang—!
Lee Sihyeon headed for the place where miasma felt the thickest.
If the children were in a place like this, she had to move as quickly as possible.
“Where are the children!”
She had tried to wrench information from the cultists in black hoods she caught,
but like any proper cult, they kept their mouths shut.
And even if they had opened them—
“Th-those guys are...”
Boom!
Their heads exploded before they could provide any useful information.
I don’t have any method for extracting information.
In her impatience, Lee Sihyeon sent a quick radio message to Kim Seokhyun.
“Did you find the children?”
-Not yet, but I found a strange place.
“Really?”
-I sent my people over, so we should have some trace soon. Did you find anything on your side? It’s weird—too quiet. No witch, no archbishop.
Step— step—.
Heavy footsteps reached Lee Sihyeon’s ears.
“Honey, I found one here.”
-What?
A neutral voice rang out around Lee Sihyeon.
“On a day as sacred as this... what kind of thunderbolt is this?”
-T-that voice just now?
The archbishop.
The true rulers of the Demon God Cult.
So he was here after all...
“You find the kids quickly. As you know, if the archbishop is here, that means there isn’t just one witch. We have to find them fast. Please!”
-Cho...
Crack!
The moment the archbishop clenched his fist, the radio crumpled like trash.
“My, my. Making yourself comfortable in front of me, are you, Director Lee Sihyeon?”
Hah.
He destroyed the device by clutching at empty air?
“You’re Joma.”
An S-rank awakened telekinetic.
The filth who had committed a massacre in Vladivostok and defected to the Demon God Cult.
“My, you caught me? Even though I changed my face.”
“Shut up. The smell of garbage is already spreading this far. Team 1, fall in with Brigadier General Kim Seokhyun.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Special Task Team 1 threw themselves backward without the slightest hesitation.
Military types never hesitate, do they?
“You think I’d just let you go?”
“And if you don’t?”
What can you do, anyway?
“Ariel.”
Yes.
Fwoooooosh—!
A gale so fierce it was hard to keep her eyes open crashed down on Joma.
Joma waved a hand and sent the gale right back into nothingness.
“So the mighty Lee Sihyeon is only at this level? You can’t beat me with power of this caliber!”
“That wasn’t an attack. Look up.”
Joma tilted his head skyward.
“Up? W-what is tha—!”
There, in the sky, was a giant crashing a fist down toward Ulleungdo.
“Ha...! Hahaha! Yes, yes! That’s Lee Sihyeon!! Come on then, let’s play!”
“Shut up.”
BOOOOM—!
***
Crackle, crackle.
“Honey? Honey!!”
The connection with his wife had been cut.
The one she had encountered, judging by the voice, was a telekinetic named Joa.
He wouldn’t lose to her, but...
“Captain!! We found a trace! Here’s an entrance leading underground!”
Following Team 2’s lead, he reached a massive underground cavern.
“A prison?”
It looked no different from the prison that had supposedly existed in the United States long ago.
With a hopeful heart, he activated his ability.
Kim Seokhyun’s eyes turned blue as he showed him the past.
“It works!”
The ability worked.
Maybe it was because no one had expected anyone to come this far.
Or maybe they had simply been targeted by someone.
“Found a trace! It’s that way!”
He didn’t know exactly what it was.
But the moment his ability started working again, the investigation was over.
“Team Leader! Team 1 has returned! They say the director sent them!”
Si-hyeon?
If that was true, then surely...
While quickly using his ability, he caught sight of a white-haired witch coming out from that direction.
That was the place where the children were most likely being held.
And then—
at a point in time not too far removed from the present,
someone else had passed by.
“W-what?”
Not one person, but two.
There were two witches.
If the archbishop was over there...
then that meant the rest of them were all here.
There were three witches in total.
“Damn it!! Everyone in the task force, get ready to run at full speed!! The children are in danger!!”
Two witches had gone to the children.
Their purpose was painfully obvious.
“Yes, sir!!”
Using their individual abilities, the agents surged forward.
Dammit, this is bad. This is bad!
The first white-haired one looked like someone they could at least handle.
But not the other two!
Their murderous aura was so intense it reached across time and even affected him now.
The black energy disappearing wasn’t some mystery at all.
It had been swept away by the magic power of those two witches.
Just passing through that place had driven the black mana back.
Wait, then why was I only able to see from this point onward?
Shouldn’t he have been able to see the past of every road the witches had passed through?
“Damn it, I don’t know what any of this means.”
“Captain!! We found it!”
“Ah, yes—there it is!”
The first trace.
A broken iron cage.
Fragments of potions scattered nearby.
Traces of his son and Yehwa.
“Move on to the next point immediately!!”
The time and route the children had taken.
That way?
Fwoooosh—!
A red magical current so sharp it felt like it would cut the skin just by touching it swallowed the surroundings.
“What the hell is this now!!”
“Uwaaaagh!!”
Some of the agents were struck by the raw force and retched violently.
It wasn’t miasma, but mana.
Could mana even be this powerful?
At this level, wouldn’t it be on the commander’s scale?
It felt like you’d need at least a three-star general to stand against this aura.
From this distance, this kind of power...
What on earth is happening?
The aura of an absolute being, one who would call a witch nothing more than an insect.
“No way... are we too late?”
The witch must have sensed it too.
There was no way she hadn’t.
Damn it! Jayeon!!
“Don’t worry about pacing yourself—run! We have to get there as fast as possible!!”
The agents answered by violently surging their mana through their bodies.
“Ignore the walls too!! Smash everything and keep moving!!”
“Yes, sir!!”
Please, let us not be too late.
Please, let nothing have happened yet.