When the Seal Breaks (2)

'Damn you, Isaac!'

Noel ground his teeth. Never in his wildest calculations had he imagined things would unravel like this.

'Of all things, those bastards had to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠catch wind of Kaya.'

His father—no, House Eshua. No, he should have buried this long before it ever rippled out into noble society.

Because this was not going to end as a simple matter of "child stealing."

Why?

Sixteen years ago, around the time Isaac was born, the eldest son had abruptly issued that order to Benyamin. At the time, Noel had found it suspicious that the man left the estate so suddenly, and he had kept a close watch on him—so close that he managed to filch a portion of his correspondence. Reading it, he had been utterly dumbfounded.

Why else would the eldest son commission such an investigation?

'He figured out that the one who died wasn't his own child!'

But how on earth had he found out? There should have been no possible way to know.

Whatever the case, Noel had joined hands with the Gold Cardinal to deal with the couple who had learned the truth.

The Gold Cardinal—having once had the woman he loved stolen away by the eldest son—had stepped forward without hesitation. And so the Cardinal had eliminated the couple, then moved to kill the newborn Isaac as well.

Well, the little marvel had survived and arrived at the estate in the end, but Noel had decided that suited him fine. He could simply be offered up as Kaya's living sacrifice. If anything, Noel had reasoned, awaken him as a Saint and ship him off to the imperial family, and his market value would only climb.

And now those bastards had learned about Kaya?

One careless slip, and everything tied to the eldest son could come cascading out with it. Then it would truly be over.

'The family head, and even the imperial in-law connection that was my last line of defense—all of it reduced to foam.'

No—wait, was that even the problem right now?!

Neglecting his dying wife. Luring demons in to slaughter the servants. Swapping a child. Ordering the murder of the couple. If that true face was peeled back layer by layer and dragged into a court of law, he might genuinely die under the Empire's public stoning.

The Holy Empire did not forgive sins of that magnitude. In ordinary times he might have slipped free under a Duke's name—but excommunicated now, stripped of the holy name of Eshua, he had no protection left at all.

'No, before any of that, Father would kill me himself.'

But so what?

'Kill Isaac, Rillai, and Father, and I'm the only one left who can become family head anyway.'

Once the head of the Blue Faith was dead, the holy name could be restored with House Berith's help. That was precisely why he had unsealed the Awakening God of Darkness.

'And why the Dark Awakening is a poisoned chalice.'

Noel let out a low chuckle.

'Light only burns brighter because darkness exists.'

The symbol of Eshua was . But the Eshua of today was a shadow-light incapable of shining on its own—like pale lamplight trembling on the surface of water. Just as darkness makes light blaze all the brighter, "darkness" was the very thing that could bring such a Blue Faith to completion. To forge a truly powerful light, one had to swallow the dark.

Yet every Eshua of the past had failed. All of them had succumbed to madness, devastated everything around them, and ended their own lives. Which meant that if he used it to awaken Kaya, the thorns in Eshua's side would die right along with it.

A sacrifice was required, just as with a Saintess's awakening—so Isaac could be killed off as the living sacrifice, and Kaya, maddened by her awakening, would finish off the uncles.

'Father has gone to the Conclave, so the only one who could possibly stop Kaya would be someone of the same tier—Rillai, at best.'

Leah was a precious Saintess; they'd keep her far away. And that nephew-doting fool would never let go of his nephew, would he? He'd hurl himself into the flames like a moth. He knew now that Isaac was his own blood—so he'd treasure the boy even more desperately, wouldn't he?

Noel couldn't help but laugh.

"Learning he's his own flesh and blood will only cinch the noose around their own necks."

Well, if the Dark Awakening was brought out, the Kaya card would have to be thrown away, which was why he'd been hoarding her—but no matter. No, come to think of it, power like Kaya's could wipe House Eshua from the face of the earth. A meaningful death, then.

And that was why Noel had come seeking the sealed Awakening God of Darkness. A pureblood Eshua could never have approached it—but he could.

"The blood of the Gold Faith comes in handy at times like this."

.

Noel wove the Gold Faith's holy art into a barrier. A sacred art that repelled everything in existence except allies—or himself. With it in place, he would never become the enemy's target.

Then he began unwinding a seal that only those of Cardinal rank could ever undo.

KRAK!

At Noel's gesture, the chains binding every corner of the underground chamber shattered. In the same instant, a powerful holy array flared to life across the floor—

KUGUGU!

—and from that array, an overwhelming tide of darkness surged upward.

Noel immediately fed Kaya's belongings into the darkness, letting the Awakening God know exactly who its target was. For this purpose, he had brought a holy relic back from the Gold Faith. Then he raised his voice and roared at the surging power:

"O God of Awakening! Here stands a Saintess candidate who craves your power! Awaken Kaya! Take her own flesh and blood as the living sacrifice and devour them!"

Meanwhile.

"I'm sorry—what?"

Shuri, hauled into the prayer room, refused to believe his own ears. Staring at Isaac as though he'd just witnessed a ghost, he trembled from head to toe.

Could anyone blame him?

"You... you're going to... pray? To a god?You?!"

At Shuri's shriek, Isaac shot him a look that said what are you even gawking at.

"Why? Grandpa went off to the Papal Court ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for the , didn't he? To pick the next Pope. So obviously I'll be summoned too, right? Which means I've gotta prep before they call me."

"Why on earth would you be summoned?"

"What do you mean, why? They said the next Pope will be the Saint."

"And who exactly is the Saint?"

"Yours truly."

"Pff-hah!"

Shuri couldn't hold it in.

"You absolute—! You think slapping a face on a pumpkin turns it into a person? A guy like you, a Saint, my foot... AAAAGH!!!"

Isaac shoved Shuri's head out toward the window.

"Shuri, dear cousin. Shall we run a little science experiment on what happens to the human body when it falls ten stories?"

"IT GETS FLATTENED! IT GETS FLATTENED!!!"

"Correct answer."

Shuri, who had come within a heartbeat of a free fall, dropped flat against the floor. Then he lifted his head and fixed Isaac with a look of pure disgust, as if to say: and this is the guy lecturing me about sainthood.

One thing was certain.

'This bastard becomes Pope, and we get a tyrant.'

But he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud, so Shuri changed the subject instead.

"...Setting that aside—you said Pope Sylvester might still be alive. If that man really is alive, then..."

Isaac's hand, wearing its brightest smile, began rising back toward Shuri's head, and Shuri screwed his eyes shut.

"If that bastard really is alive, then..."

"Mm-hm. Go on."

"...would the Conclave even happen? If that person declares he'll be Pope..."

Isaac smirked.

"Relax. He can't get involved."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a high chance the Skeleton King that showed up at the Ordination Ceremony was him."

"Oh! Right, that makes sense, so then... wait, WHAT?!"

Shuri's jaw dropped, as though he'd just heard something no living soul was meant to hear. Deeply, catastrophically shocked, he stammered.

"H-hold on. Say that again? Pope Sylvester is the—the Skeleton King? What in the—?!"

Instead of answering, Isaac simply beamed at him.

"Anyway, that's not what matters right now. What matters is you handing over the holy relic the God of Light gave you and getting out. Here."

"Tch. You're not even supposed to give this thing to other people, you know..."

Shuri pulled the rosary off over his neck and held it out. The moment Isaac snatched it, gave Shuri a hearty boot out the door, and was on the verge of summoning the God of Light—

FWOOSH!

"!"

A violent crimson flame erupted from the prayer room's candles. And as the fire twisted itself into the shape of a hawk, Isaac's hackles rose.

"Oh, what now—why are you here? The one I was calling is the God of Light."

The one who had appeared was none other than the other god bound to Isaac by contract.

The God of the Penal Code.

"What do you mean?"

Isaac clicked his tongue, as if to say you caught on fast.

"Ah, that. I was planning to use the Awakening God of Darkness to give myself a little awakening too. I got the God of Light's Awakening this time around, but it feels like a criminal waste to only ever awaken the kids around me."

"What? It's divine power—am I not even allowed to call it a waste?"

"Idiot."

Isaac clicked his tongue.

"You think that works on a Demon King? The Demon King—the walking poster child of corruption? If I fall into corruption, I'll still be a Demon King when I come out the other side."

And that was the exact moment it happened.

BOOM!!!

A colossal detonation rocked the prayer room to its foundations. Isaac's eyes went round.

"What the—what was that?"

The moment Isaac stepped outside the prayer room, he saw the smoke. Rising from the direction of the Eshua estate. At the same time, Shuri—who had been kicked out earlier and left waiting in the hall—came sprinting back in a panic.

"Isaac! It's bad! The Eshua estate is under attack!"

There was no need to ask by whom.

'The Awakening God of Darkness.'

A monstrous power was tearing the mansion apart, striking down knights indiscriminately. Chilling screams rang out one after another, and the fishy stench of blood hung thick in the air.

Rillai and the knights still inside the estate gritted their teeth. They had realized it—the thing was searching for someone. At last the dark aura veered sharply, and the moment they recognized the direction it was taking—straight toward the prayer hall—they shouted.

"No! It's heading for Isaac!"

"After it—MOVE!"

The darkness was bearing down on Isaac, hungry for its living sacrifice.

Crossing rooftops in the blink of an eye, the Awakening God arrived directly before Isaac's eyes and revealed its true form.

And Isaac smiled—a slow, gleaming grin.