New Holy Relic (3)
Dealing with enemies was something he could do any number of times, but the fact that those opponents were comrades brought only confusion. They attacked with lethal intent, yet this side could not respond in kind. Even as he wondered what had gotten into these people, he could not shake the anxiety that he himself might fall for the same trick.
“Prioritize subduing over attacking! I’ll handle the rest!!”
At that moment, a welcome voice reached the people who had been retreating in panic.
“Priest Arthur!”
The person who gave them the confidence to enter battle without fear. It was Priest Arthur’s voice.
Hah….
How do I subdue these bastards without injuring them? He was still pondering the order to subdue when Priest Arthur spoke again.
“It’s fine if they get hurt! I can heal them! Just don’t break any bones!”
“Then it’s entirely possible!”
The only reason subduing had been difficult was because he had been trying to avoid causing injury. If attacks were permitted, subduing them was simple. He had no idea what they were seeing that made them lash out in every direction, but restraining someone whose mind had been thrown into chaos was well within his ability.
Because—
“I’ll drive them over there, so take them down in one go. Got it?”
“Yes!”
The other side consisted of individuals attacking with eyes rolled back in frenzy, but this side could coordinate with allies. Meanwhile, he found himself worrying about the enemies who had created this mess. Surprisingly, only one person was facing them. He had declared he would handle them all so the rest could look after their confused comrades. Thanks to that, subduing had indeed become easier.
I trust Priest Melody’s skills, but the numerical difference is overwhelming….
He was thinking he should resolve this side quickly and go help when a tremendous explosion suddenly erupted from another direction.
The deafening sound had come from where Priest Melody was battling the enemies. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, the surrounding scene came into view. Grass and trees had been snapped and shattered, leaving a massive crater behind.
“Wow.”
Around the crater, enemies lay writhing and groaning. What was even more astonishing was that those still standing were hardly in better shape. A single fighter was overwhelmingly dominating a large number of foes.
It seemed the skills of Priest Melody he had witnessed while fighting alongside her had been only half of her true capability.
Gulp—!
They were not enemies, yet that ferocity made every sense prickle. If so, what must the enemies fighting her feel? Probably the same as a defenseless human standing before a ferocious monster.
Once it became clear they were heretics, Sister Melody’s demeanor changed. She did not hesitate to take their lives. She followed the unshakable conviction that a good heretic was a dead heretic.
His eyes kept drifting toward her feats, but he set that aside for now and focused on rescuing the team members.
What is the best treatment for mental derangement?
The relevant knowledge was among the information the Sun God had delivered to him in a dream. Since he had never attempted it before, both recalling the details and putting them into practice took time.
Fortunately, Sister Melody’s efforts prevented the heretics from harming their own allies.
“Stop attacking and focus solely on defense!!”
He shouted to those subduing the afflicted comrades while he finished preparing the holy magic. Because he needed to affect everyone with his divine power, it consumed far more than anticipated.
I knew I had to test every holy magic I learned at least once!
There were so many types that trying them all was no easy task.
Hwaaaaack—!!!
To restore the confused team members to their senses. To heal their injured bodies.
A sparkling, intangible sphere burst from his body and expanded, enveloping everything nearby. Since this was his first time using it with only theoretical knowledge, he had not known what to expect, but he certainly had not anticipated such a brilliant display.
“Whoa….”
The purified area sparkled as a whole, like falling snow. The gentle, glittering descent was captivating enough to draw every eye, and the team members who had regained their senses stared in awe at the descending divine power.
One by one, the weapons in their hands dropped to the ground with a clatter.
“So the person we’ve been fighting this whole time wasn’t the enemy, but you?”
“Yeah, man. Don’t hold too much of a grudge that your hyung stabbed you. There was no other choice.”
“I get that there was no choice, but it feels like there were some personal feelings mixed in?”
Even the man who had been distracted by something beautiful soon began tending to his recovered comrade. Learning that the opponent they had tried to kill was actually an ally was shocking enough; the one who had been directly attacked comforted the others, telling them it was all right.
“But we don’t have time to stand around like this, do we?”
“Ah!! The assassins!!”
“Actually, it looks like that side is nearly finished too?”
At the team member’s words, everyone turned toward where Sister Melody was fighting.
“Ugh.”
“Why do those guys suddenly look so pitiful?”
It was not a pleasant sight. They were watching people being torn apart in real time, after all.
If I hadn’t seen that before, I probably wouldn’t have adapted.
He recalled helping clean up the heretic corpses to assist Sister Melody. That event was what had opened her heart to him, and he remembered that even then she had slaughtered heretics in exactly that manner.
“They look like moths flying into a flame.”
“I had no idea Priest Melody could fight like that.”
“She must have been holding back until now. Wow… I want to ask her to teach me a few moves. So that’s how you can move. But is it really okay to just watch? Shouldn’t we help?”
“Of course we should!! Let’s go!!”
The team members, now fully recovered, moved to support Sister Melody. Arthur stopped the one who had just awakened from confusion from rushing off.
“All of you need treatment first. Even if you look fine now, lingering effects on your mind are possible.”
Besides, the ability he had used to awaken them was designed for a group. It could not be as effective as when focused on a single person.
“But why did this happen to me? I didn’t feel anything happen, yet suddenly I was seeing those hallucinations….”
“To put it simply, the assassins released a poison and you were affected by it.”
“Poison?”
“Yes. Whether it’s poison or this, both harm the human body, so you can think of them similarly.”
Forcing hallucinations could not possibly be good for the body. Moreover, while divine power was infinitely beneficial to humans, the remnants of the Evil God inflicted negative effects.
“But why was I the only one poisoned while the others weren’t?”
“You might feel bad when you hear the answer.”
“Feel bad? There’s no way. I absolutely must know. I can’t risk suffering the same thing again, can I?”
It was not something one could prepare for in advance. Still, since the man was so eager to understand, Arthur decided to tell him.
“It’s roughly a difference in… willpower, I suppose. More precisely, a difference in mental strength.”
“Mental strength? Ah….”
Everyone simultaneously pulled faces as if they had bitten into something bitter. That was exactly why he had warned them. What separated those who had been affected from those who had not? It meant their spirits were weak enough to submit instantly to the Evil God’s power. The others had possessed strong resistance and had not fallen so easily.
Perhaps because the group consisted of highly skilled individuals, their mental fortitude was equally strong. As a result, far more people had resisted the heretics’ tricks than had succumbed. Thanks to that, the incident had ended without any major disaster.
“There is one more factor that influences it.”
“What is it?”
“If you normally live a devout religious life, you naturally develop resistance to that sort of energy.”
“Religious devotion!”
“So that was it.”
“No wonder….”
Rather than dwell on the idea that their mental strength was weak, they seemed to prefer reflecting on their lack of consistent religious practice. Their expressions brightened at once as they resolved to devote themselves more earnestly from now on.
While the team members reflected, Arthur focused intently on treatment.
“Treatment complete.”
As he examined each person, he could still sense traces of the Evil God’s power that had not yet been fully expelled. He drove it out with divine power and finished the healing cleanly.
“Can we join the fight? I don’t want to fall for their schemes again and end up attacking my own comrades….”
“With my divine power still inside your bodies, you won’t succumb easily.”
To those who feared falling into confusion again, he explained that the divine power residing within them would offer protection.
“However, it won’t last forever, so fight with caution. Since you’ve already been affected once, you’ve gained some immunity and won’t be hit as quickly. If your head starts throbbing, your stomach feels off, or your body seems out of alignment, come straight to me.”
“Yes!”
After hastily giving them the warnings and sending them off, Sister Melody—perhaps encouraged by the reinforcements—fought with even greater ferocity. Just as he reached out to treat the final person—
“Whoa—! You bastard! You startled me! Trying to throw your life away so casually?”
The last assassin had been captured. Most had perished under Sister Melody’s merciless skill, but a few had been kept alive for interrogation. Those survivors had attempted to swallow the poison hidden in their mouths, preferring death. Fortunately, one of the team members had noticed in time. They were treated before the poison could take hold, and their lives were saved.
Heretics swallowed poison without hesitation because they knew that capture meant only torture, confession, and eventual death. The Holy Empire never allowed heretics to live, and the heretics knew it well. Dying while carrying out their mission was far preferable to suffering and dying later. Therefore, the first thing done upon capturing a heretic was always a thorough body search to prevent suicide.