Hopelessly Pitch Black (5)
Whoosh.
The Holy Power Bullet Isaac had fired streaked through the air.
Yes—it was just like fireworks.
Shuri's eyes glazed over at the beautiful light woven across the sky. Haha, I've seen it over and over, and it's still not an illusion. It's really flying. Son of a bitch, this guy is insane?! And if his eyes weren't deceiving him, the direction of flight was unmistakably aimed at the angel's face—
And then, at last, an explosion ripped through the Execution Grounds.
BOOM!
The sudden blast shook the arena violently. Dust billowed, and the shockwave left the priests deathly pale while the holy knights guarding the Execution Grounds hastily drew their swords.
"What's going on? What happened?!"
"Are we under attack?!"
Amid the voices of panic, Shuri clutched his face. Aaah, everything's going dark. Pitch black! Hopelessly pitch black!
'ISAAAAAC!'
Seriously, did this bastard die with a grudge against faces in his past life?! Why is he so obsessed with hitting other people's faces, what is wrong with him?!
Grandfather's order to keep a close watch on Isaac collapsing into ruins around him, Shuri approached his cousin practically on the verge of tears—his young face wearing a look that had already transcended worldly concerns and reached enlightenment.
"So, you little brat. Feel good, do you? Flying off someone's head feel good, huh?!"
But Isaac himself was looking decidedly un-refreshed.
He had no choice but to.
"Not bad at all. To think you noticed the demons lurking among us."
He'd missed.
The stray Holy Power Bullet had slammed into a pillar, still spewing smoke—and on that pillar lay a monster, foaming at the mouth and knocked flat by the impact.
Why was there a monster there?
Well, obviously there was bound to be one.
"Spread the rumor. That right now, even a young Saint and the Fourteen Six Demons could be devoured."
Because Isaac had ordered Ash to spread that exact rumor.
[True. A body belonging to the Fourteen Six Demons? It'd be stranger if demons weren't tempted.]
Since upper-rank demons carried demonic power in their very flesh, all manner of riffraff would come crawling after it. Even a mere 6th-Tier demon drove lesser creatures into a feeding frenzy—but the body of a 9th-Tier demon was enough for entire factions to mobilize deliberately, not just stray scavengers.
And the Founding Festival and the Sacrificial Offering Festival, with all their foreign visitors, made it that much easier to slip in unnoticed.
There had always been parties eyeing such a prize, of course—but if he spread the rumor, wouldn't even more come flocking? And then, when he smuggled out his subordinates, it would be all the easier to pin the blame on those creatures' schemes.
As for the fools who drooled and came running at such a rumor? The Skeleton Demon King's decree—never trespass upon the domain of humans—had not yet been broken.
'Anyone who'd come swarming after hearing that is arguably already mine to claim as a subordinate.'
Especially ones reeking of human blood.
So the presence of demons lurking in the Execution Grounds was no problem at all. Quite the opposite—he welcomed it.
The problem was that this damn angel had dodged his attack.
'Dodge?'
Dodge?!
Who would stoop so low as to dodge, just because they happened not to be the wretched spawn of petty gods?!
'I was planning to clip the angel too, while pretending to target the demons.'
That is—he'd intended to feign poor aim and let the shot graze the angel as well.
Another Holy Power Bullet formed in Isaac's hand.
Startled at the sight, Shuri rushed to stop his little cousin—but—
Whoosh!
His efforts in vain, the shot flew once more.
"Isaac!"
The Holy Power Bullet, bolder this time, hurtled straight toward the angel's face—and—
Swhoosh.
Oh, dodged again.
And so the monster-faced Isaac threw, it dodged, he threw, it dodged—
"Goddammit! Why the hell do you keep dodging, you bastard?!"
...Is that thing genuinely insane?
For Shuri, it could only be baffling. Look, back with the statue at least you claimed you bowed your head right after firing that shot. But now, far from missing, you're throwing and throwing again as if actively proving your intent to hit.
Granted, the opponent was a messenger of god.
The angel had evaded every single one of Isaac's attacks without taking a hit—but every last one of those attacks had been aimed at the demon.
"You must still be an apprentice, for your aim is so poor. Or did you use me to strike at the demon instead?"
No, it wasn't the demon I was aiming at—it was your face?
"Throw another. I shall correct your trajectory for you."
It would never once occur to you that the 'corrected trajectory' is aimed at your face, would it?
But Shuri was sweating buckets. Well... if that's what they're thinking, maybe that's a blessing in disguise?
'...Though the man in question doesn't seem to find it a blessing at all.'
Isaac's face, his every attack having failed, was burning with pure hatred.
[Ah, so the angel can correct trajectories because a Holy Power Bullet is the same attribute.]
Right—sharing the same nature meant the angel could intervene in it. And a Holy Power Bullet was only at the 4th or 5th Tier level. Unless he amplified its power, it would keep turning out like this.
[Borrowing the power of an Upper God rather than an angel would be a different story, of course.]
But that required forming a contract with a god. And hadn't they said the gods interested in him were only Lower Gods?
'A Lower God would barely match a high-ranked angel in power.'
It wouldn't be useless, but anything short of a Middle God wouldn't help much.
Which meant that, in his current situation, there was only one thing to do—
'Use Melissa's holy relic.'
There was a reason a Saintess was a Saintess. The holy relic of a 9th-Tier priest could temporarily amplify the power of a Holy Power Bullet—and a Saintess, blessed by every god under heaven, was far stronger than any ordinary angel.
Sure, if it was a messenger of the God of Punishment, a Chief God's servant, it would be a strong one. But so what? What was it going to do about it?
If he blew its head apart with the power of that fearless Saintess who once ripped off the Skeleton Demon King's own leg, did it really think it'd walk away unscathed, angel or not?
All he needed was to draw blood anyway. Any means necessary—that was all that mattered. In contests like this, the more tenacious one wins. It was the way of things.
Isaac was just drawing out Melissa's Rosary, the emblem of the Saintess—
Growl!
"!"
The hidden demons lunged at Isaac all at once. He was, after all, the one holding the Fourteen Six Demons captive.
"Isaac!"
Some twenty demons attacked simultaneously. To them, a mere apprentice guarding the Fourteen Six Demons must have looked like the easiest prey imaginable. If this was Cardinal Verith's design, it was flawless.
The demons' appearance threw the Execution Grounds into chaos.
"Everyone, draw your blades!"
Priests and holy knights surged into the arena.
"The demons have come to disrupt the execution!"
"Protect the honored guests!"
But their targets were Isaac and the Fourteen Six Demons. Devour the Fourteen Six Demons—no, merely tear off a single scrap of their flesh—and unimaginable power would be theirs. And beyond that, slaying a Saint would earn merit and glory beyond all reckoning.
"Grrr!"
Shuri and Kina, standing nearby, moved to invoke their divine arts. But the lurking demons were clearly no ordinary foes—they stretched their hands out of Isaac's very shadow.
'Damn it, the distance!'
The instant the demons' hands reached for Isaac's legs, Isaac vanished from before their eyes.
"!"
Vanished Isaac reappeared abruptly beside the execution platform. The angel had scooped him up and carried him out of harm's way.
"That was close, young servant of god."
It had rescued Isaac from danger. The angel looked the boy over here and there, as if checking his condition.
"Are you hurt anywhere? Oh, brave and gifted servant of go—"
In that very moment, the angel felt a chill crawl up its spine.
Why? Why is there something murderous in my own arms—?
Hardly had the thought formed when the explosion went off.
KRAKOOM!!!
A massive blast struck the angel, and it staggered—Isaac was sent flying far away.
"Isaac!"
Shuri sprinted toward him where he'd crashed to the ground, his face gone chalk-white.
It had to be.
'That brat couldn't hold it in and fired another Holy Power Bullet!'
Meanwhile, the angel—who had just been ambushed out of nowhere—smoothly wiped its face. It had barely escaped, but who would have dreamed a Holy Power Bullet would detonate inside its own bosom? Its heart nearly dropped out of its chest. It turned to look at Isaac.
"Child. I understand your aim remains unrefined, but the demons are not this way—they are over there—"
But the angel could not finish.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"……?!"
A swarm of Holy Power Bullets was rising from the ground, flying straight for its face!
And their power had grown stronger than before! This was a force that ordinary manipulation could no longer bend—enough to genuinely hurt if one connected.
The angel hastily evaded.
"Child, that is not—"
Wham! Wham!
"Child! Did I not tell you they are not this way!"
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!
"Child—"
"Goddammit! Take the hit already!"
"……??"
...That thing—it's attacking me, not the demons, isn't it?
Right?!
Only now did the angel realize that Isaac's every strike was aimed at it. And thus, it could only be flustered.
What is this? Why is a servant of god attacking me?
Having never once experienced such a thing, the angel's eyes wavered in confusion. Why? The aura of blessing he radiates, his appearance, his holy power—every way I look at him, he is a devout child of god!
"Son of a—maybe I should pluck those wings first."
...Not the mouth, then.
But the angel swept a hand through its hair and exhaled. Yes. Well. It could make sense of this.
What usually descended into the mortal realm were divine beasts, ranks far beneath the angels. Since the great angels themselves almost never came down directly, a young human child might well mistake one for some dreadful monster appearing out of nowhere.
Mortals had always lost their reason in the face of sights too wondrous to bear. A being with multiple wings and an inhuman countenance—it could frighten a child. Yes, that was understandab—
"That bastard's a transformed demon!"
...Understandab—
"I saw it! The demon didn't attack him! He's a filthy hound of the Skeleton Demon King! He came to smuggle out the Fourteen Six Demons!"
...I can't understand it at all?!
Suddenly branded a lackey of the Demon King, the angel shot Isaac a look. Even so, calling it a hound of that Skeleton Demon King crossed the line, surely?
"It seems the children of this age are not properly schooled in the gods."
The God Realm trembled with hatred at that name more than any other. They had always loathed the Skeleton Demon King—and 150 years ago, how grievous had been the losses from his self-detonation.
A being horrific by its very existence.
'The gods bade us watch over the Saint candidates with love and care. To cherish them and guide their awakening—but if the Skeleton Demon King's mouth is to be shut, the matter changes.'
'Educate him moderately, short of causing harm.'
Displaying the dignity of a god was, after all, a duty of god's messengers such as themselves.
At last the angel spread both hands wide—and Isaac, as if he'd been waiting for exactly that, let out a snide puheh of a laugh.
"See?! It IS a demon's lackey! The demons swarmed in and the angel didn't so much as glance at them! I'm telling you, it has to be dealt with!"
The angel's brow twitched.
It wasn't that the angel ignored the demons—it couldn't touch them. The God Realm was barred from laying hands directly upon the mortal plane. Even they needed divine sanction before they could subjugate demons, and the cleansing of demons was the priests' charge, so that their efforts would become divine power.
But there was no way to explain all that in detail.
'...Normally the Five Great Families would have taught him all this, no?'
Had the boy never even received such basic instruction?
'No—actually, this may work in our favor.'
And why not? That child was a Saint candidate.
'Did not the God of Punishment command us to leave only the child of the Red faction and dispose of the other candidates?'
It might be better to use this opportunity to remove him altogether.
'Brand him a heretic and be done with it—'
But at that moment—
BOOM!!!
A Holy Power Bullet slammed directly into the angel's face.
"ISAAC!"
At last, a drop of blood fell from the angel's cheek.
Shuri buried his face in his hands—it was over. At this point, no one would fault the wounded angel for erasing Isaac from existence.
But Isaac just smirked.
'Good. So far, everything's going to plan.'
And so Isaac goaded the angel.
"If you're not a demon's lackey, then prove it!"
By now, the angel's eyebrow was twitching violently.
Proof? Prove it?
A messenger of god is expected to present evidence?
"No proof, is there? Then take the hit, you bastard!"
From Isaac's hand bloomed a massive, amplified Holy Power Bullet.