Curse and the Holy Land (2)
"The Holy Land...?"
Kenis tilted her head, the question hanging uncertain in her voice. Was there truly a place in this world that could be called a Holy Land? Or—wait—had he meant the Holy City of Civitas?
The priest smiled gently at the confusion filling her eyes.
"While you were lying unconscious, Lady Kenis, Civitas was turned completely upside down."
"Um... why?"
"Because a gate to the Holy Land appeared in Civitas."
"Ah, a gate to the Holy Land... Wait—what?!"
Kenis had been answering half-absently, then nearly leapt out of her skin. Something had appeared in Civitas—what, exactly?
"W-wait. Wait just a moment. What appeared in Civitas?"
"Heh. A gate leading to the Holy Land has appeared within the Pantheon of Civitas."
"Excuse me? No—the Holy Land? A gate appeared?"
"Yes. A gate. From what I've been told, it manifested together with a great light..."
The priest laughed with quiet delight at Kenis's blank, stunned expression. Had he worn that same face the first time he heard the news?
Divine power existed in the world, yes—but the miracles of the Five Gods had last touched this earth in ages so distant that, save for the First Saint, even the records of them had all but vanished.
The faithless whispered the blasphemy that the gods had abandoned the mortal plane. And yet the Sixth God had opened a gate to the Holy Land with His own hand, for the sake of the mortals who walked the earth.
"Truly a blessed and thrice-blessed event..."
The priest murmured a prayer under his breath, devout and solemn. Kenis still looked as though she had no idea what any of it meant.
The Holy Land? A gate appearing in Civitas? Out of light?
Just what on earth happened while I was out for six days?
"Hmm. A Dimensional Gate...?"
A gate that connected to other dimensions? Connecting what to what? My temple to somewhere else?
"No idea."
I'd figure it out once I built the thing. I shifted the screen over to an empty lot.
Dwarves were still hard at work, roaming between the mines and the temple, crafting weapons.
Try installing a Dimensional Gate on an empty lot!
I dragged the Dimensional Gate from the construction list and dropped it onto a suitable empty plot. A structure that looked a bit like a triumphal arch rose from the ground with a flurry of hammering and clattering, and finished itself in an instant.
The Building Completion Package was pulling its weight again. Honestly, buying that thing was one of the best decisions I'd ever made.
"Still the best value package I've ever bought."
I smiled with quiet satisfaction and tapped the finished Dimensional Gate.
Ba-bam—!
The Dimensional Gate has been completed! At regular intervals, residents of other dimensions will visit the temple!
Visiting residents may purchase weapons—or trigger special events!
A new destiny awaits you.
"Residents of other dimensions will visit?"
Something like wandering merchants roaming around? Meet them, get an event, sell them weapons.
"I can never resist a random event..."
There were two things that made a man's heart race. One was an absurdly huge armory. The other was a random event.
Say you're playing a game and you hit a fork in the road. One path is a combat tile, the other a random event tile. I pick the random event every single time. Absolutely cannot resist.
"Still, for an idle game, this thing has a surprising amount going on."
The further I progressed, the more content kept pouring out. At first it had just been craft weapons, sell weapons. Now it felt like the developers were live-coding new features and shoving them in as I played.
"Now this is a god-tier game!"
Well. Not that they were actually doing that... right?
Early morning in the Holy City of Civitas.
The paladin Demonic stood before a mirror. In the glass, a black-haired man stared back at him with unblinking intensity—eyes of polished silver, smooth as beads.
Then the eyes in the mirror curved into a thin, sly smile.
It was a smile Demonic himself would never wear: the cunning, serpentine grin of something that only wore his face.
"..."
Demonic's fist clenched so hard it trembled. The knuckles shook as if he might smash the glass at any second.
The tongue of the man in the mirror flicked like a serpent's as it whispered to him.
"Kh—!"
A thin line of blood ran from Demonic's tightly sealed lips. He had bitten his own tongue to break free of the temptation.
The mirror-image of himself—the thing wearing his face—wavered violently.
The reflection twisted and shuddered like a pond struck by a stone, then vanished. The serpentine smile was gone. Only a man with blood on his lips remained in the glass.
"Hah..."
Only then did Demonic stagger back from the mirror. Blood dripped from his clenched fist in dark beads, leaving spots on the floor.
He dropped heavily onto the edge of the bed and raked a hand through his hair. Dark circles sat heavy beneath his eyes—seventeen years without a single deep night's sleep. Whenever he dreamed, unwelcome guests came calling through the dream itself.
Damn them all...
Demonic swallowed the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth. He was a man who could not break. He must not break—not yet. Not until Kenis stood as a Hero, a living symbol of peace.
"Those miserable bastards..."
They were relentless. No matter how many methods he used to keep them out, they slipped through the smallest cracks like snakes—tempting, needling, shaking a man to his core.
Dong— dong—
Far off, the great bells of Civitas rang out the morning. The Holy City's call to rise. Demonic stood and began a quick, efficient toilette.
Preparations finished, he set out at a brisk pace.
Thud, thud—
His firm footsteps echoed down the corridor. Early sunlight fell across him, but his shadow refused to be erased by the light; it rippled and trailed after him all the same.
He walked without hesitation until he stopped before a small door.
Knock, knock—
He rapped lightly on the wooden door—short, sharp taps—and waited.
"Come in."
An old man's voice from beyond the door. Demonic opened it slowly and stepped inside.
"...Demonic?"
The elderly Great Priest Antonio raised his brows as he looked up at him.
"What brings you here at this hour of the morning?"
Without a word, Demonic drew something from his belt and held it out.
"This is..."
A guardian talisman, blackened through. The old Great Priest's face went grave. This was an anti-demonic ward he and the other Great Priests had crafted with their own hands—a charm meant to hide Demonic from the eyes of the wicked and the profane, and to bar their approach.
For it to have turned this black...
"How long has it been?"
"Not long."
"I see... And your body?"
Antonio's eyes narrowed as they settled on Demonic's fist. Demonic offered a smile that mixed exhaustion with a bitter edge.
"I'm used to it."
"Used to it... Those are not good words. Accustomed to the wicked."
Antonio shook his head slowly. How much must a young man have endured to wear an expression like that?
A cruel fate indeed...
Swallowing a private sigh, the Great Priest took the corrupted talisman.
"For now... I'll have the other Great Priests and myself craft you a new one soon."
"Thank you."
"Yes. Be careful for a while. These things targeted you directly, even inside Civitas. You must not act rashly without a ward."
"...I will do so, if I can."
Demonic bowed at the waist, then turned. His steps faltered for a moment at the old man's next words.
"How long do you intend to keep this a secret from that child?"
"...I will handle it myself."
Antonio gave a short, dry laugh at the sharp reply. Usually as blunt as stone—and yet this.
You cannot run forever...
Was an old man's counsel nothing more than nagging to the young? Antonio watched Demonic's departing back with quiet regret. The burdens of the past and the burdens he had chosen for himself were slowly crushing him—and an old man's eyes could see it clearly.
"That boy needs to learn how to set some of it down. Tsk, tsk..."
Antonio clicked his tongue toward the empty doorway and tucked the talisman into a drawer.
And in that very moment—
"—Hm?"
His head turned toward the window. Outside the Pantheon, beyond the glass, a vast presence was stirring.
An immense quantity of holy power was coiling in the sky.
Bang—!
"Great Priest Antonio!"
Demonic, who had just left, slammed the door open and strode back in.
"...We should go. Now."
"Yes. Let's."
The two of them hurried toward the exterior of the Pantheon.
Above the plaza where Kenis's Hero Appointment Ceremony had once been held, the sky itself was changing.
Crackle—! Snap—!
Holy power condensed and gathered overhead, forming a vast cloud of light.
At the clear anomaly, crowds thronged and murmured.
"Everyone, you must not gather here—!"
"This is not a drill! Fall back at once!"
Holy knights moved quickly to disperse the people, but the crowd would not scatter easily. If anything, more kept arriving, swelling their numbers.
"This does not look ordinary. We should go at once."
"Yes—go, then."
Demonic ran to aid the holy knights. Antonio frowned up at the cloud of light.
As a Great Priest, he could feel the holy power in the heavens more clearly than anyone. A ridiculous, colossal mass of it. If his own holy power were a firefly, that cloud of light was the sun.
An enormous amount of holy power...
A cold drop of sweat slid down Antonio's back. Was there anyone in Civitas who could command holy power on that scale?
No—was that even something a human could do? It was, quite literally, on the level of a god—
...Surely not?
The Sixth God? A single speculation flashed through Antonio's mind.
It was only a possibility. But if—
Is the God Himself about to work a miracle upon the earth?
Antonio's eyes shook violently. Was a true divine miracle truly about to descend?
Crackle— crackle—!
The cloud of light grew larger and sharper by the second. At last it seemed to hit a critical point, shuddering violently—
Fwaaaah—!
A vast light fell from sky to earth.
A pillar of light dropped from the heavens to the ground.