Divine Seat
“I seem to have kept the Noble One waiting far too long. Please, step inside the temple. A room has already been prepared for you.”
“I need women… Do you have any?”
“I’ve gathered every beautiful believer. They are waiting in the room for the Noble One alone.”
“Is that an oracle too?”
“I heard Guide Kang Jiwoo’s report. And we have been watching the Noble One for a long time already. It was an oracle from the God of Light. Of course, back then you were not yet the Noble One… but that hardly matters now.”
The claim that they had been watching me for a long time sent a chill down my spine.
I never sensed anything strange… Were they monitoring me from a great distance?
Or maybe they had simply dug into my background. Either way, it was unpleasant. But I lacked the power to confront the Cult Leader about it directly. Even if I did, the most I would get was an apology.
The Cult Leader turned to Park Su-ho and the ordinary believers.
“Tomorrow you will become sacrifices. Sacrifices for the God of Light, for the world itself. Accept your fate. It will be the highest form of service you can offer Him. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Cult Leader. We will gladly sacrifice ourselves for the God of Light.”
One of the believers spoke for the rest. The others bowed their heads deeply in agreement. Park Su-ho was among them. The Cult Leader smiled with satisfaction.
I offered a silent prayer for Park Su-ho.
I’ll take good care of your little sister Ga-in. Farewell, Park Su-ho. It’s been fun in its own way.
For a moment the goddess Selbretina struck me as a complete idiot. Why make Park Su-ho a hero of all people?
“Good. Purify your bodies through bathing and cleansing, then keep your minds pure through prayer until the ritual begins tomorrow.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
“Now go that way.”
The believers rose and headed where the Cult Leader pointed.
I flicked my eyes open a fraction. As Park Su-ho passed beside me, he brushed my hand lightly. I didn’t know the cause, but it seemed the brainwashing on him had broken. Maybe it had something to do with this temple space.
They call him a hero or whatever. He must have some special power.
Park Su-ho might have a plan. I decided it would be best to meet him later.
After that the Cult Leader personally guided me to my room.
It was furnished no less lavishly than a five-star hotel suite. Inside the spacious chamber, beautiful women waited in sexy lingerie. East Asian, Western—every one of them possessed outstanding looks.
“Welcome, Noble One.”
“We will serve the Noble One.”
“We’ll accept any kind of play.”
I swallowed hard and dropped my pants.
After a thoroughly satisfying round of sex, I showered and stepped out of the room. I intended to meet Park Su-ho. I had no intention of sneaking around. I was the Noble One. Even the Cult Leader showed me consideration. The ones who had to watch my mood were the believers.
“Hey.”
I called out to a passing believer. The moment he saw me he bowed his head. A brown-haired foreigner.
“Yes, Noble One.”
He answered in English. Thanks to the Leisure Life app I could speak English at a native level.
“Where is Park Su-ho’s room?”
“Park Su-ho…? I’m not sure what you mean.”
“…The place where the sacrifices for tomorrow’s Divine Seat ritual are kept.”
“Ah! You mean the prayer room for the sacrifices? I know where it is, but… by the Cult Leader’s order, no one may enter freely. The sacrifices would be defiled…”
“I’m fine. Or what—am I impure? Huh?”
“N-no, of course not! If it is the Noble One, it will be perfectly fine! Yes! Absolutely!”
Judging by his reaction, my status might even outrank the Cult Leader’s.
Does this have something to do with Bramasen trying to make me his apostle?
I watched the believer walking ahead of me. From his clothes and bearing he seemed to hold a fairly high rank among the faithful.
“Hey. What’s an apostle?”
“An apostle is one who has received a share of the God of Light’s power… an existence akin to His incarnation.”
“Higher than the Cult Leader, then.”
“If we speak purely of rank… yes, that is so.”
“And I’m going to become an apostle.”
“Most likely, yes.”
An apostle (true). That was why the Cult Leader was so courteous to me. I grinned. Not bad at all.
“This is the place.”
We stopped before a white door. It was firmly shut.
“Good work. You can go now.”
“Yes. I shall take my leave. And my name is…”
“I don’t need your name. I’ve memorized your face, so just leave.”
“Yes, Noble One.”
The socially adept believer withdrew. Once he was gone I opened the door and stepped inside.
The floor was solid marble. Clean water flowed along one side; on the other, naked believers knelt on the marble, facing forward, absorbed in prayer.
They did not react even when I entered—that was how deeply they concentrated. The wall opposite them was covered in unpleasant patterns.
Those probably have a brainwashing effect too. Park Su-ho might have fallen under it again.
If that were the case I would turn around without a second glance and go back to having sex.
I found Park Su-ho sitting among the believers. He was naked as well, gaze fixed straight ahead. I knew at once he was not brainwashed—because his cock was erect. He must have gotten hard looking at the naked beauties nearby. I quickly averted my eyes and erased any trace of pre-cum from my mind.
“Hey. Park Su-ho. You still sane?”
Park Su-ho looked my way.
“Hyung! Why are you so late?!”
“You think it was easy getting here?”
“I thought you’d abandoned me.”
“You know me better than that. I’m not that kind of guy. Get up first.”
Park Su-ho rose from his spot. His legs trembled. I frowned at the sight exactly as it was.
“What’s with the hard-on?”
“I’ve been kneeling so long my legs won’t listen. And the erection… I can’t help it. Look around.”
There were men and women. Especially among the women, beauties made up the majority—over a hundred of them. Some were kneeling with their upper bodies bowed in prayer, asses spread so their pussies were fully visible.
“Whew. I’m just glad you’re relatively normal, hyung. Your mental strength really is something else.”
“Relatively normal? I’m completely fine.”
“Come on. After everything that happened to get here, that bravado… If you were really fine they never would have made you do those things.”
The things I had done in the Gwangwon Sect flashed through my mind. I decided to keep my mouth shut about that.
“So. Got a plan? Go outside and call the Association for help?”
“No. That would be too late. Goddess Selbretina said if we don’t stop the Divine Seat ritual right now, it’ll be dangerous.”
“…You actually talked to Selbretina?”
“Yes. She said this space itself is closer to Celbria than Earth. And because this is a temple, Goddess Selbretina can exert some of her power here.”
“That so? Then what do we do now?”
“First we have to stop the Divine Seat ritual. Completely stopping it right away is impossible, so… we smash the ritual chamber and buy time. After that we escape outside, inform the Association, and get their help.”
“To get the Association moving easily… we’ll need evidence.”
“There’s plenty of evidence all around us. Just looking at this scene alone… And you have a smartphone, right, hyung?”
“What about you?”
“The second I entered the prayer room they took all my clothes and everything.”
“Alright. Let’s get outside first. We can strip a believer out there and put his clothes on you.”
I left the prayer room with Park Su-ho. In the corridor he took clothes from a passing believer and put them on. At my command the believer stripped without hesitation.
“Hyung, you really do hold absolute power.”
“It’s not power I asked for.”
But it was power I wanted.
I swallowed the rest of the thought and wandered the temple interior with Park Su-ho, gathering evidence that would move the Association.
“We’ve checked every place worth checking. Shall we head to the ritual chamber now?”
The ritual chamber was in the temple basement.
Asking a believer made it easy to find. For reference, rituals in the temple ran twenty-four hours a day. This was different from the special Divine Seat ritual. It was the ordinary rite the Gwangwon Sect had performed daily for a long time.
“Hyung. What’s ahead is… going to be truly awful. Are you ready?”
“I think you’re the one who needs to prepare.”
Park Su-ho’s face had gone rigid. We both knew what kind of ritual waited beyond.
The ritual.
It was on a completely different level from the ones held at the Gwangwon Sect training camp.
In this temple they performed human sacrifice. Every two hours they killed a person and offered them up. Twelve people died as sacrifices every day.
The Gwangwon Sect obtained this temple about two years ago… so at least eight thousand people must have been sacrificed already.
The sacrifices were not believers. They were humans kidnapped from all over the world. Offering believers as sacrifices happened only for the Divine Seat ritual.
Park Su-ho and I entered the ritual chamber.
It was dark. The air was hot. The stench of blood was so thick it was hard to breathe. The space was as wide as an auditorium; at its center stood an altar atop a flight of stairs. A man’s corpse lay on the altar—head severed. Blood streamed down the steps.
“Noble One! What brings you here?”
A man came running toward me in a fluster. His clothes were ornate, though not on the Cult Leader’s level.
“A Guide?”
“I am Murat, the First Guide!”
“I see. Die.”
Crackle.
I swung a fist charged with lightning. Murat’s head exploded outright, fragments flying in every direction.
“Yujin-hyung!”
“Got a problem?”
“No! I just wondered if you needed a weapon!”
Park Su-ho was already cutting down fanatics with a sword he had taken from a nearby believer.
“I’m good.”
Believers with swords charged Park Su-ho. They were at least C-Class Hunter level, yet he subdued them with ease. It was not Park Su-ho’s own strength—his movements were too clumsy for that. Some other power was assisting him.
“Noble One! Why are you doing this?!”
“The God of Light has ordered me to kill you.”
“Ah, is that so? Then please kill us!”
“…….”
They discarded their weapons, spread their arms, and urged death on, bright smiles on their lips. The sight irritated me so much that I electrocuted them with lightning to make them suffer as much as possible. Yet the ecstatic smiles never left their faces.
“Ahh… I go to the God of Light’s side…!”
If anything, I was the one who felt worse. Park Su-ho and I silently slaughtered every last believer. They abandoned even the will to resist my orders. Leaving them alive would have been a problem—the Cult Leader’s commands might take priority over mine.
“Hyung. These bastards deserve to die. How could anyone perform human sacrifice like this?”
“I know. Calm down. You’re the one who’s more of a mess right now.”
“Ah… damn it.”
Park Su-ho squeezed his eyes shut. His body trembled faintly. But only for a moment. He pulled himself together and began smashing everything around him. One by one the objects needed for the ritual shattered. This would buy us time even for the Divine Seat ritual.
I discovered a door at the rear of the ritual chamber. It was thickly smeared with blood.
I opened it. Stairs leading further down came into view.
We’re already underground and there’s an even lower level? …Could this be the real ritual chamber?
The door was far too obvious to be a secret passage.
When I descended, my eyes went wide.
Corpses were strewn everywhere. More than ten thousand bodies formed hills, piled haphazardly. The pooled blood rose as high as my calves.
Decapitated corpses were the most numerous, followed by those with bellies slit open or hearts extracted. Dismembered bodies were rare.
They’re naked, so these must be the humans offered as sacrifices. The fact they haven’t rotted means some measure was taken. Planning to use the corpses again later?
Squelch. Squelch.
I walked forward. This was a corpse storage. Nothing more to see. Yet something entered my field of vision. I had to confirm it.
“Huk! A-are you crazy…! Hyung! Where are you going?!”
Park Su-ho’s voice came from behind. I ignored it. Park Su-ho didn’t matter right now. My heart pounded. It was a sense of dread.
Thud.
My legs stopped.
It was Han Harin.
Han Harin lay there with her belly split open, every organ on full display.
“…….”
Rage surged until my mind went blank for an instant.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle.
Blue lightning raced down my legs and spread in every direction. Blood evaporated; corpses burned. The flames leapt to every body.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle-crackle.
The lightning continued to blaze.
“Hyung! Hyung! Snap out of it! Yujin-hyung!!!”
“I’m perfectly sane.”
Absolute Mind would not permit me to go mad with rage. Even when fury and hatred filled me to the crown of my head, I remained clear-headed.
“…Park Su-ho. What day is it today?”
“Today? The 28th. No… midnight’s passed, so the 29th. Hyung. More importantly, if we stay here we’re in danger too. We have to get out fast.”
“…….”
Only after I watched Han Harin’s corpse burn away completely did I leave.
My destination was wherever the Cult Leader was.
“Hyung! Where are you going? Hyung?! We have to escape outside! We’ve got all the evidence, we’ve delayed the ritual—we need to get out and call the Association for help!”
“You go first. I’m going to kill that Cult Leader bastard before I leave.”
“That Cult Leader isn’t weak like the other believers! He’s definitely received the God of Light’s power! Hyung, please think calmly!”
“I am calm. Because I’m calm, you do whatever the hell you want. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. From this point on nothing means anything anymore. From this point on… it’s just me venting.”
“What are you talking about? Ah, seriously! Hyung, please!”
Park Su-ho tried to block my path, then flinched. He could not stop me. His instincts were sharp. If he had kept standing in my way, I would have killed him.
“Ah, damn it…! Fine. Do whatever you want, hyung. I’ll do whatever I want too.”
Park Su-ho left.
In front of the Cult Leader’s chambers I summoned Hwaryeonbido into my hand and kicked the door open.
BOOM!