It's Quite Satisfying
From ancient times, the act of circling around an object of worship—whether a tower, a castle, or something similar—had always been performed as a kind of ritual.
It could be an offering to the sacred, or a ritual to ensure victory in battle. The possibilities were endless. Like the tale of how circling a great castle seven times and blowing a horn caused it to collapse in an instant.
Since such stories were common in this world as well, Ryly simply widened his eyes.
He had performed the circling thinking it would be better than direct contact. He went around once, fully. Yet it had worked perfectly, and only Sugar had vanished.
“Calm down. The function can be roughly guessed. It might be a teleportation device… or an isolation chamber. Seeing that only that girl disappeared means it’s something only they can use.”
“…”
“They hadn’t received baptism, but they had harbored the Evil God’s power. So treating them that way makes sense.”
Ryly said nothing and pulled out his staff.
“Have you cast tracking?”
“Yes.”
After the reunion, he had cast tracking magic on the headband once more. Following that trace, it had cut off abruptly.
Since tracking had failed, the answer came out roughly. A ritual required as much devotion as the value of what you desired. No matter how much you performed it, without an offering, long-distance travel after just one circle was impossible.
Then where could it be? Where had Sugar disappeared to?
There was a crystal tower here. Constructed from the crystals of the Gem Dragon that blocked the influence of magic power.
Ryly stared quietly at the crystal tower while calming the boiling magic power.
***
To Sugar, the Shadow Cult disciples were ‘a group that always opened their hazy eyes and acted selflessly according to the Apostles’ commands.’
They spoke the least. Since they had no will of their own, commands to die were handled cleanly. In the original game, that was how they appeared, and in this life as well, so there was nothing strange about it.
Instead, what was strange was what stood before her now.
“True Saintess… liberate us.”
“Punish the false Apostles.”
“How can you remain so calm? Grant us a lake-like peace as well…”
These people had a lot to wish for. They had enormous self-esteem. Their eyes, strangely clear, were even more unsettling.
Sugar hid that reaction. In fact, her back had been damp with cold sweat since earlier, yet she was a woman who knew how to pretend to be bold.
At this timing, she had to say something wonderful.
Wonderful words… wonderful words…
“– No matter where you go, not being shaken is relying on his arms.”
“Ah…”
“Saintess…”
“Lord…”
They prostrated themselves again.
Hmm. It’s quite satisfying.
A person who served the Saintess should behave like this. They should worship. Which crazy religious group would lock their Saintess in a basement after removing her five senses?
Even though these people in front of her belonged to that crazy religious group, something still felt different.
Thinking about it, since earlier they had been saying things like “liberate us” or “false Apostle.” They had been voicing things that bothered her.
Could they have been locked up here? By the hands of that false Apostle?
Sugar looked around. No matter how you looked, it was a closed space with no windows or entrances. She was literally stuck in mid-air.
A kind of prison…
By focusing her nerves, she scanned the ambient magic power. The amount was very weak. Had the Evil God’s magic power clinging to her body been completely devoured?
When I entered here, the Evil God’s magic power reacted to me and gathered all at once.
Then the disciples’ state wasn’t good. There were places on their bodies that had turned white. Probably affected by the thick black magic power permeating this space.
Nevertheless, they looked up at Sugar with wide-open, clear eyes.
When Sugar met their gaze, they bowed with a shak sound.
“… Why have you come here. I will listen, so tell me.”
The next scene was like a bunch of chicks.
They were chirping anxiously as if waiting for something, but when all twenty of them spoke at once, she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She knew they were upset, but she didn’t know the specific content.
Sugar raised her hand.
“Only one person speak.”
The disciples who had closed their mouths looked at each other, and soon sent forward the oldest-looking disciple.
“What is your name?”
“My name is Pol…”
“Alright. I’ll ask Pol. Who locked you up?”
“The… the beast-like beings who can be called false Apostles and the fallen Apostles.”
False, beast, fallen. Despite being heretics, it was a big fuss. From the perspective of the Saint’s cult, they were just that.
“They persecuted and harassed us for not following their will. They imprisoned and used fellow disciples. They committed arrogant acts of misinterpreting the will of the Lord and breaking the doctrines. Saintess… please punish them. Guide us with the Lord’s true will…”
While saying that, another disciple next to him was muttering with tears, “If only Rubshi-nim were here…”
“Where is Apostle Rubshi?”
“After Apostle Rubshi was marked with the stigma of being a disobedient person, she hid her whereabouts. But didn’t you, Saintess, grant us? We believe that is a stain. Please wash away this stain…”
“… You are those who belonged to her.”
The disciples just prostrated again.
The situation was roughly visible.
No matter how much heretics, there were ranks.
There were villains they couldn’t touch, but there were also those who truly believed in a different god and could communicate. If the god they believed in was the one who said “people are too good, I need to be one with people,” that would be a problem. But they said they would quietly live with them in a secluded place. What else could they do?
And the people in front of her seemed to belong to the latter. Disciples who had received teachings under the gentle Rubshi.
In the original story, after Rubshi they would have all been dealt with.
Coming back to reality, Rubshi’s survival was unknown, but anyway, her body had fallen to the ground. In the meantime, a new force had succeeded in taking over the cult, so the purge began.
Was the reason her activities had been slow during that time.
Because the inside was in chaos. Later, there was some scheme, so they planned it.
They wouldn’t do such a noticeable action just to purge the opposing faction. A crystal tower filled with black magic power.
“Why are they trying to show the Lord’s magic power to the world?”
“… Huh? If you know that, why did you come here?”
Sugar spat out black magic power.
“I- I- I- I can’t say what to say because we were forcibly brought here without any information given to us… However, I remember that those extremely evil beings expressed us as ‘fuel’…”
After finishing, Pol muttered, “Please withdraw your power…”
After waving her hand to recover the magic power, Sugar thought again.
Fuel. Fuel.
Fuel to be offered to the Evil God’s magic power?
Is this place inside this crystal tower?
She had experienced something similar in Stille. Multi-dimensional overlapping spaces. Spatial entanglement.
A field that was much wider than it looked. An accident caused by overlapping dormitory spaces. There were also doors that changed location every time.
The mystery of entanglement in space was truly profound, and interpretation was still ongoing. Even the Stille completed two thousand years ago had many spaces that weren’t properly understood, so there were places blocked.
For now, the situation was understood. There were many things unknown, but these guys didn’t seem to know either. The Saintess couldn’t keep showing her insufficiency.
First, let’s escape.
Sugar took out her staff.
Then she stopped moving.
… That wall. Can I break it?
To get out of this closed space, I need to break through the wall. Is this not inside the crystal tower?
But I don’t know what happens if I break that wall. Will the crystal tower break too. Or does it connect to another dimension.
No matter what, it’s not a pleasant thing.
The former would make the outside scorched. The latter is too uncertain and unstable.
Or maybe something unexpected happens.
But… there’s something strange.
Sugar looked around. The disciples looking up blankly at the disappeared Sugar. Their bodies and clothes were whitened in places.
Then. The wall. It was a gray stone wall. But some parts were white.
Around the time she frowned at the unease.
“Ah… aaah…!”
Someone opened their mouth wide.
At that moment, the disciples started trembling and huddled together in one place. Like herbivores from earlier.
“You said not to be afraid.”
“S, Saintess. Please calm this fear.”
They pointed behind Sugar and pleaded to Sugar.
Sugar followed and turned around.
There was a small girl.
Black hair, red eyes. Quite cute. Too small body. Smaller than Sugar’s childhood. Wearing only a black one-piece dress.
On her head were animal-like ears, constantly twitching, which didn’t seem like decoration.
“… Beastkin?”
“T, the beast-like ones… Saintess. That is the beast-like ones.”
“Calling beastkin beast. That’s harsh.”
“That is a beast.”
They were trembling while speaking, and at some point, they had hidden behind each other in the corner. Sugar, who looked at that with disbelief, looked back at the front.
Nothing.
The girl was gone.
The moment she noticed, it jumped out from the left with a wang- sound and bit hard into Sugar’s upper arm.
Immediately, the flesh was torn off and blood sprayed.
Around the time the sharp pain and dream-like scene made her spine chill. From behind, a muttering voice came. It sounded like a murmur to overcome fear.
“How can a person eat a person… so that’s why it’s a beast… it has no choice but to be a beast…”
Looking ahead, a beast with its mouth stained red was chewing Sugar’s flesh with a crunching sound.