Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: The Chimera
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The Chief Purification Priest's office held an atmosphere entirely different from the underground training ground of just moments ago.
A luxurious velvet damask sofa that softly cradled one's feet, and the faint scent of fragrant wood wafting subtly through the air.
It seemed to symbolize the elegance the church outwardly pursued, but my senses recoiled in revulsion, issuing warnings.
Beneath this space lay a fishy blood scent, thick and cloying, impossible to mask with any incense.
And I instinctively knew the reason.
Corrupted Divine Power.
The power that should have been noblest of all had been hideously warped—the result of violating some profound taboo.
'She must have committed no small number of atrocities.'
It was utterly different from the root, compared to the clear, pristine energy emanating from Elena or Seraphina.
Whether she sensed my inner thoughts or not.
Eleanor offered a steaming teacup with a benevolent smile.
"Ian brother, the tea will get cold. Why don't you try some? It's made from very rare leaves that grow only in the high mountains of the northern Empire."
She lifted the teacup languidly as she spoke.
The veil draped deeply over her eyes thoroughly concealed her expression, but beyond it, a cold glint flashed sharply.
"Yes. I'll gratefully accept."
Suppressing my reluctance, I picked up the teacup before me and downed it in one gulp.
As the tea slid down my throat, a thick, metallic tang lingered.
Clack-.
"I'm grateful for the hospitality, Priestess. May I ask what this is about?"
Eleanor let out a low chuckle at my urging, as if she were enjoying it.
"No need to rush, Ian brother. We have plenty of time."
With those words, Eleanor rose from her seat and approached the bookshelf lining the wall.
Her hand, carefully scanning volumes on scriptures and doctrines, paused at an old book tucked into the farthest corner.
When she pulled it, a heavy vibration—of massive gears meshing—traveled up through my soles.
Rumble-!
The solid wall slid away completely, revealing an endless dark passageway.
The wind blowing from the passage was bitterly cold, laced with the stench of rotting flesh.
"Will you follow? It seems faster to show you directly than explain."
Eleanor beckoned lightly to me, then vanished into the darkness without a hint of hesitation.
As if she were absolutely certain I would follow.
'I've been cornered.'
Even our encounter when I took down Roderick—had that been thoroughly calculated?
Or had she been observing my contacts with Mirabel long before that?
One thing was clear: in this situation, I had no means of escape.
"Hoo..."
I shook off stray thoughts with a short sigh.
Rather, accepting the inevitable strangely cleared my mind.
I confirmed the feel of the stiletto hidden in my bosom one last time, then began following Eleanor.
Thud thud-.
As we descended the passage, the cloying stench of the basement stabbed at my lungs.
Torches lining the walls flickered in time with our footsteps, casting dancing shadows.
Even in the darkness, Eleanor walked steadily and began her tale.
"I've served as a purification priest for a long time. Every day, conducting rituals and facing people."
Her tone, as if lost in fond memories, was sickeningly soft.
"When pulling those sunk in filth from the mire, I truly believed without doubt that it was rewarding work. I thought cleansing their sins was my calling."
But as we ventured deeper into the shadows, her expression darkened profoundly.
"I found it truly regrettable why people get so easily soiled."
Her speech still carried the tone of a merciful priest, yet beneath it lurked a twisted madness.
"Then one day, a thought struck me. Is there no perfect being in this world, undefiled by any filth?"
She clasped her hands like a girl recounting a dream.
"So I decided to forcibly inject Divine Power into people during purification rituals. I believed that if this radiant power filled their veins, they could never become ugly again."
But frail humans couldn't withstand that noble energy at all.
Whenever Divine Power exceeded a certain threshold, limbs would explode or brains would burn out, shattering their minds completely.
Eleanor recited countless deaths in an indifferent tone, as if discussing broken pottery.
"Why can't humans accept Divine Power beyond a certain amount? I never stopped researching for the answer."
Her so-called research was undoubtedly a chain of inhuman experiments, offering the living as sacrifices.
"But I eventually hit a limit and turned my eyes to beings with stronger bodies."
With Eleanor's calm confession, we stepped into a vast underground space.
One word flashed through my mind at the sight unfolding before me.
Hell.
Along the walls stood countless massive iron cages, grotesque twisted creatures writhing within.
Kieeeek-!
Sensing my arrival, the creatures scratched furiously at the bars, unleashing ear-splitting shrieks in unison.
Some crawled on all fours, grotesquely dislocating joints.
Others glared obsessively at me, countless eyes blinking furiously.
Their forms varied wildly, complex patterns branded into them like stamps.
But the moment I saw them, I knew their identity.
"Monsters..."
"Monsters? Ah, in the west, they're called that, aren't they?"
Amid the piercing screams, Eleanor passed between them with serene composure.
"I was convinced only magic beasts could be reborn as great beings capable of endlessly accepting Divine Power. And that conviction has now borne fruit."
Her eyes ecstatic, she finished speaking and strode boldly back into the darkness.
Moments later, we arrived at a circular cavern.
There, bound in restraints, panted a colossal form incomparable to anything we'd seen before.
A massive body patched together from the ragged parts of various magic beasts.
Muscles protruding from the grotesque flesh twitched irregularly, exuding a foul stench.
Tubes embedded between segments of skin continuously pumped in turbid Divine Power.
"This is the fruit of my research—my masterpiece, the Chimera."
Eleanor spread her arms proudly and turned her body.
"But because the materials were too exceptional, it doesn't even react to ordinary concentrations of Divine Power. As expected of a great being, I suppose?"
She stroked the Chimera's festering skin with loving affection.
As I watched this grotesque spectacle, she quietly whispered to me.
"What do you think of the Saintesses, Ian brother?"
"...Pardon?"
Before I could respond to the unexpected question, her eyes curved into sharp arcs.
"To awaken this child, that noble, pure power is absolutely necessary."
Eleanor continued nonchalantly, as if making a casual request.
"So, Ian brother, extract the Saintesses' Divine Power and offer it to me."
She smiled as if seeing through my every move, no longer bothering to hide it.
"Your plan to ally with the Imperial Intelligence Bureau and help the Saintesses escape—it mustn't reach the Director's ears, right?"
A chill raced across my entire body.
She wasn't merely suspicious.
She was certain—and had me firmly by the throat.
Savoring my dismay, Eleanor stared intently, then brought her lips close to my ear.
"To me, only the sacrifices needed to bring a perfect being to this earth matter. The lives of one or two Saintesses are utterly irrelevant. So I trust you'll make a wise judgment."
As she spoke, she lightly lifted my chin with her finger.
"If Elena's recovery makes it inconvenient, there's another one, isn't there? Your aide and trainee... the Second Saintess. Seraphina, was it?"
Suppressing the cold sweat trickling down my chin, I forced my lips to move.
"...If I refuse, what happens to the Saintesses?"
"The First Saintess, or the Second?"
"Both."
At my question, Eleanor twisted her lips as if she'd heard an amusing joke.
"If brother won't do it himself, I'll have no choice but to step in. And you know the consequences best, don't you, Ian?"
Meanwhile, at that very moment, in the underground training room.
Seraphina stood rooted in place, clutching the sweat-soaked towel Ian had tossed her with both hands.
"..."
Memories from the moment she first met him until now flashed through her mind.
He was far removed from the brutal interrogator of ill repute whispered about in Camp 1.
His back as he took down Roderick in her stead when she was insulted.
His peculiar consideration—entrusting only Elena's care to her without any coercive measures, diametrically opposed to the church's harsh doctrines.
And today, those reckless eyes shouting for her to attack without holding back, sparing not even her own body.
All those memories mingled with the lingering warmth in the towel, shaking Seraphina's reason.
'Don't entrust your body to anyone.'
The church's Inscriptions—that had reigned as absolute truth in her mind until now—were developing faint cracks from his single short command.
A tool had no right to control its own body.
It existed solely as a sacrifice to be expended for God and the church.
Yet Ian had told her to protect herself regardless.
The silver pendant gleamed coldly between her slender fingers.
It was the first gift of her life, given while treating her as a fellow human.
A flicker of life briefly entered Seraphina's hitherto dull eyes, then faded.
It was a minute change, but it was also precisely what Ian desired.
Seraphina stared for a long while at the end of the dark corridor where Ian had vanished.
Clutching the towel even tighter, she murmured lowly.
"Ian... sir. What exactly do you want from me?"