The Saintess's Desperate Plea
Help!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of heavy blows against the thick wooden door of the dilapidated ward tore through the silence, as if the door were about to shatter. Aria, who hadn't been able to fall into a deep sleep due to the crushing weight of stress and hunger, sprang from her bed like a coiled spring. Her heart hammered against her ribs, threatening to leap out of her throat. She gripped the rusted dagger she had kept carefully hidden in her robes and stepped onto the cold stone floor with bare feet.
Striving not to even make the sound of breathing, she approached the door with extreme caution. The ward’s door, neglected by the passage of time, had its wood peeling away, looking as though it were on the verge of collapse. Aria pressed one eye tightly against a narrow knot-hole in the center of the wood.
"Hup!"
Aria swallowed a scream that nearly escaped her throat. What she saw through the hole was the bloodshot, grotesque eye of a reptile.
How had one of these creatures—these eternally cursed Kappa that should have been rotting at the bottom of a river—climbed all the way up here? It was plastered against the door of the ward located deep within the castle. Through the cracks in the wood, the creature’s horrific, fishy stench and a nose-stinging, repulsive miasma seeped in.
Even the intense hunger that had been wringing her insides just moments ago was completely forgotten in the face of such overwhelming terror. Her mind went blank, and her voice caught in her throat.
That was when it happened. A bizarre sound began to emanate from the Kappa beyond the door.
Krrrk. Ka-hak. Ududuk.
It sounded like phlegm bubbling deep in a throat. It sounded like raw meat being savagely torn apart. And then, an unpleasant friction, like a child forcing broken toy blocks together, erupted from the Kappa’s vocal cords.
At the end of that horrific noise, what struck Aria’s eardrums was not the cry of a beast... It was a voice too clear and fluent to ever come from a monster that seemed as mindless as a Kappa. It was human.
"Saintess. Have you made up your mind yet?"
Aria stumbled backward and landed hard on her backside. That voice. That arrogant, repulsive inflection was undoubtedly the Outer God of the Seven Calamities who commanded the water demons. Unlike last time, it was using the body and vocal cords of the Kappa standing before her to speak to her directly.
"I believe I gave you a sufficiently merciful amount of time. Isn't it about time the pain of hunger broke your stubbornness?"
The Outer God’s voice rang out grotesquely through the Kappa’s throat.
"Have you finally decided to surrender and become my own saintess... no, my own maman? If you kneel, swear loyalty to me, and offer me everything you have! I will guarantee the safety and food of those useless lumps of meat beneath you forever."
An Outer God, an entity that transcended the common sense of the world and grotesquely collapsed human thought and understanding. Yet, the words it spoke were infinitely base and perverted. Maman? The bizarre obsession with trying to dominate her by calling her 'mother' made Aria’s skin crawl.
"You filthy demon! I would rather bite my tongue and die than become your toy!"
Aria shouted sharply, suppressing her terror. At her cry, the Kappa beyond the door let out a nasty, mocking laugh.
"Can't be helped. I suppose you aren't hungry enough yet. Or perhaps you need to see blood right in front of you to come to your senses."
Crack! The Kappa’s clawed hand, sharp despite its scratches and bleeding, punched straight through the rotten wooden door.
"In that case, starting tonight, I'll show you me eating those brats one by one right before your eyes. Let's see how long your high-and-mighty pride and faith can hold out!"
Snap! The Kappa began to swing its claws madly to tear the door apart completely. Wood splinters flew everywhere, the door split in half, and the creature’s hideous head shoved its way into the ward.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Aria screamed and kicked off the floor. She raised the rusted dagger with both hands and struck down with all her might toward the Kappa’s head as it forced its way in.
Clang! But tragically, the dagger could not pierce the Kappa’s hard skull. It was a weapon already ruined by years of neglect, and combined with Aria’s clumsy strike, the dagger snapped in two and bounced away uselessly.
"Puhahak! Who do you think you're stabbing with that toothpick!"
The Kappa laughed and completely smashed the remaining door. The ward turned into chaos in an instant. The children and nuns, awakened by the commotion, crawled out into the hallway, but upon seeing the Kappa’s hideous form, they began to wail like infants in diapers.
"Everyone, run! Get away!"
Aria shouted desperately, clutching the broken dagger handle with trembling hands. But it was merely a hollow echo that scattered against the narrow stone walls.
Crash! Clatter!
The terrified elderly nuns stumbled backward, knocking over an old cabinet. Dust rose, and the children’s shrill screams rang madly through the narrow ward.
There was no place to run from the start. Behind her was a cold, thick stone wall, and in front of the only exit, the minion of an Outer God, maddened by slaughter and lust, had its maw wide open.
Ka-ha-a-ack!
The smell of rotten fish guts wafted from the Kappa’s maw. Its blood-red pupils locked onto the smallest girl, who was sitting on the floor in the corner of the ward, sobbing while having wet herself.
"Hehehe. A very tender-looking piece of meat."
The Outer God’s horrific voice vibrated through the Kappa’s mouth.
Swoosh. Crack!
The Kappa scraped the stone floor and flicked its tongue. A long, hideous, bleeding green clawed hand cut through the air, slowly reaching toward the child’s thin neck.
Time seemed to flow abnormally slowly, as if trapped in sticky mud. "No... please, no!"
Aria sat slumped, her legs having lost all strength, and bit her lip until it bled. A desperate sense of helplessness crushed her soul mercilessly. Even if she tried to reach out, her hands couldn't touch it. Even if she tried to block it, she had no strength.
The dazzling gods of the Pantheon she had served on her knees her entire life had long since fallen silent. The holy knights who had cried out for justice had all been turned into minced meat, and miracles had completely vanished from Eden. In this hellish moment, there was nowhere left in the world for her to rely on.
Srrr. At the very moment the Kappa’s sharp claw tips were about to touch the child’s fragile skin.
A foreign memory flashed through Aria’s mind like lightning. Not long ago. A miracle that had fallen onto the altar when the void, not the sky, was torn open. That overwhelming and bizarre power that had opened steel and brought down clear water and salty food.
Aria slammed her forehead against the floor and squeezed her eyes shut. She cried out desperately, as if coughing up blood.
'God of Light, please...'
No. That wasn't the name. The name of a silent, incompetent god was of no use in saving this child right now. The thread of her reason snapped, and a primal instinct for survival moved her lips.
'Please! Please, anyone will do! Unknown Outer God who gave me water and food!'
It was the manifestation of pure unconsciousness. A sorrowful scream that erupted from the depths of Aria’s soul tore through the air.
'Even if it's you, please save this poor child! Please, show me a miracle just once!'
She thought that even if she were branded a heretic of the church, it didn't matter—at that moment, when her reason was paralyzed, that was what she thought. To save the child who was about to be torn apart before her eyes, she sent a desperate SOS to a heretical Outer God, not the God of Light, for the first time.
But the moment the prayer ended, Aria’s heart sank.
'Ah. What have I just done.'
A short sigh flowed out internally. In her desperation to save the child, she had requested salvation from an unknown Outer God, but wasn't the opponent an alien horror just as terrifying as the master of the Seven Calamities who was hunting them?
There was no guarantee that it was a benevolent being just because it had given her water and meat. Perhaps she had tried to avoid a tiger only to summon a larger, more horrific monster from the abyss. Regret and fear for the prayer she had uttered unconsciously washed over her.
But there was no time for regret. The Kappa’s claws, reaching for the child’s neck, were flashing, just an instant away from digging into her skin.
Meanwhile, in the corner of a 30-pyeong apartment. A loud siren sound pierced my ears as I lay on my bed, snoring and fast asleep.
BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
"Damn, what the hell? You scared me."
I reflexively bolted upright in bed. I was terrified, thinking a war had broken out. The source of the sound was on my desk. The dual monitor screens, which should have been off because I’d set them to power-saving mode, were flashing red light madly and pouring out warning notification windows.
[Emergency Quest Triggered!]
[Saintess Aria has made an unconscious plea for salvation toward you!]
[A 'Seven Calamities' possessed minion (Kappa) has infiltrated the shelter and is threatening your potential followers!]
"Crazy, my farming resources are about to get looted!"
The remaining sleepiness vanished instantly. I jumped off the bed and sat in my computer chair in one go. The time it took to grab the mouse and check the screen was only three seconds. As soon as I sat in the chair, the situation was grasped in an instant.
On the screen, a hideous, bleeding Kappa had smashed through the ward door and was about to rip the head off the youngest child.
"This is a total mess. What the hell am I supposed to do?"
It wasn't like I could go in there myself and beat it up with my fists. The only weapon in my room was a fruit-peeling knife, and there was no way that weak nun could slice a monster’s head off even if I threw it into the game.
I needed immediate and overwhelming physical force to smash the Kappa’s head right now. My gaze darted urgently to the corner of the desk next to the monitor.