Divine Seat
Boom! Crash-crash-crash!
Explosions rang out.
I turned my gaze toward the temple. Black smoke and dust billowed into the sky. The temple had to have collapsed beautifully. I hurried toward it.
I’ll be the one to kill the cult leader.
I had ordered Amatsuka Koyori to focus on nothing but rescuing lives. Unless something truly extraordinary happened, she would not interfere in my fight with the cult leader.
“Explosion!”
“Check the ritual chamber first!!”
“Followers are trapped under the fallen pillars!”
“Rescuing the followers comes second! Put out the fires on the temple first!”
Inside the ruined temple, the cultists scrambled in panic. I clicked my tongue at the sight. I had planted enough explosives to blow the entire temple sky-high, yet only about half of it had come down.
It wasn’t that the cultists handled it well—it was the temple’s durability. The place was sturdier than I expected.
I clicked my tongue again.
The cult leader’s power was tied to the temple. Since I hadn’t completely destroyed it, he would still retain some of his strength.
But I don’t have time to smash what’s left of the temple right now. Amatsuka Koyori will be here soon.
If I dawdled, she might snatch the cult leader—my prey—right out from under me. That was the last thing I wanted.
The situation is different from before the regression. This cult leader won’t have that overwhelming power.
Drawing on my memories, I headed for the cult leader’s chambers. Along the way I ran into several followers.
“Who the hell are you!”
“Intruder!”
“The cult leader ordered us—kill any suspicious person on sight!”
They pulled weapons from their robes. Laughable. I activated Charna, slipped past them, and cut them down as I went. Even if they were ordinary people, as long as they were followers of the Gwangwon Sect I had not the slightest intention of sparing them.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Screams rose, followed by the sound of bodies hitting the floor. I didn’t look back. I kept moving toward the cult leader’s chambers.
As expected, even the explosion barely touched the cult leader’s room. At most it’s a little scorched.
I kicked the door open and stepped inside.
Unlike the neat chambers I had seen before the regression, the interior was red. Blood and entrails fouled every surface. I looked down at the human remains rolling across the floor. Clothes showed among the wreckage—followers’ robes.
“You killed your own followers?”
“I did not kill them. They sacrificed themselves. For the Gwangwon Sect. For the Light God. They will be saved by His mercy.”
Squirm, squirm.
Tentacles writhed from the cult leader’s body. Looking at the red blood coating them, I understood the situation at once.
This bastard just offered his followers as sacrifices and gained power.
I recalled the information on the Divine Seat ritual. The ritual required followers as offerings. Ordinary followers brainwashed by the Gwangwon Sect were nothing more than higher-grade sacrifices.
“Who are you? The Light God is watching. Remove that mask and show your face.”
“Are you an idiot? Why do you think I’m wearing a mask? To hide my face, obviously.”
I had been thorough—clothes, weapons, everything chosen to leave no trace. No other evidence would identify me.
This is the Light God’s temple. Bramasen is watching. I won’t use any flashy lightning that stands out.
But Flash Thunder was the exception. From the outside it didn’t look particularly spectacular.
Crackling.
Flash Thunder raced through my body. I clenched my teeth against the sudden, searing pain and turned that agony into rage aimed at the cult leader in front of me.
“Your tongue is rather foul. Still, one thing is clear. You’re the one who committed the sacrilege of destroying the temple!!”
The cult leader roared. Four thick tentacles erupted from his back and shot toward me. I sidestepped and severed all four with a single stroke of my sword. Blood sprayed as the cut tentacles dropped to the floor.
They went limp, their force spent. But only for a moment. The severed ends regenerated in an instant.
My blade aimed for the cult leader’s neck. He flinched and scrambled backward. The sword cut empty air.
I leapt upward, dodging the tentacles that lunged for my legs, then withdrew without forcing the issue.
Different from before the regression. Back then he didn’t even bother dodging my attacks.
He had simply taken every swing I threw at him. He could fight that way because cutting off his head or stabbing his heart never killed him.
But now it’s different. He dodged.
The cult leader in front of me was not immortal. He feared death.
The tentacles regenerate instantly, but compared to before the regression both their number and their power are weaker.
I already had experience fighting him. I knew from that experience exactly how he would use the tentacles in combat.
This fight was one I could only win.
Certain of victory, I charged. Tentacles lashed out. I cut them down. Getting my body filthy with their blood was unpleasant, but the knowledge that I could kill the cult leader made it more than worth it.
As I closed in, the cult leader backpedaled, trying to open distance. That limit arrived quickly. His back hit the wall. He had nowhere left to retreat.
“Heretic…! A mere heretic!! Light God!!”
His face twisted with panic as he cried out.
Had his shout reached the Light God? Black tentacles burst from his shadow and burrowed into his body.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The cult leader screamed.
I realized he was screaming in ecstasy.
His body mutated. Skin turned ashen gray. Tiny worm-like tentacles punched through the flesh. His face melted and reformed.
He no longer looked human in any sense of the word.
Before the transformation could finish, I drove my sword into his heart.
No reason to wait for him to finish changing.
Blood ran down the blade that had pierced him.
“Heh heh heh.”
The cult leader laughed. Sensing danger, I abandoned the sword and used Charna to put distance between us. More than twenty tentacles erupted from his body and swept through the space I had just occupied. A moment later and those tentacles would have seized me and done something unspeakable.
“You’ve got sharp instincts.”
He pulled the sword from his chest. The wound closed in an instant.
…Not at the level from before the regression, but I can’t ignore it either.
The cult leader’s power was linked to the temple. Smashing the remaining intact sections would have cut his strength, but I had no intention of doing so.
His regeneration just got stronger. Still manageable.
The Hunter Killer’s Bone Harpoon—a throwable weapon that left its target unable to recover for three hours. I had it, but I didn’t draw it.
The Bone Harpoon was a last resort. Too valuable to waste now.
I didn’t come here relying on that alone.
I summoned a pair of white gloves and slipped them on quickly. On the back of each hand were embroidered a pair of wings and a mace.
These were the Inquisitor’s White Gloves, a reward from clearing the Rainbow Fruit Dungeon last time. Once every twenty-four hours they could imbue an object with holy power for ten minutes.
I had enhanced them with the Radiant Ascension Path. The twenty-four-hour cooldown and ten-minute duration remained, but the holy power itself had grown stronger.
More precisely, they now channel Selbretina’s divine power into a weapon.
I infused the sword with that divine power.
The blade shone gold.
“Thaaaat powerrrr…!!”
The cult leader looked at me with pure revulsion, as if he had just seen a cockroach. His voice was wrong. Not only his appearance—his insides had become monstrous as well.
“Selbretiiinaaa!!! Disgustiiing basstaaard!”
More than ten tentacles cracked through the air like whips. I focused and cut every last one of them. Sizzle. The severed tentacles gave off the stench of burning flesh. Fragments of Selbretina’s divine power clung to them and continued to burn.
They aren’t regenerating instantly like before. That alone tells me Selbretina’s divine power is their natural counter.
The reason they were so wary of Park Su-ho was probably the same—Selbretina’s power was dangerous to them.
“Cult leader. This time I’m going to kill you for real.”
“Light God… pleeease…!!”
The endless tentacles came for me again.
I danced with them. Dodging the ones that sought my body, cutting them down, I walked steadily forward. It did not take long to stand before the cult leader. With every tentacle severed, he trembled.
“The Light God… is watching…!”
“I know. That’s why I’m wearing the mask.”
Bramasen. Even if that thing was watching, nothing changed. There was nothing Bramasen could do right now. At best he could empower the cult leader the way he just had—and even that had limits. The fact that he was doing nothing now proved it.
Thrust.
I drove the golden sword into the cult leader’s chest. He convulsed. Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle. His body burned under the divine power. The tiny worm-like tentacles that had writhed across his skin collapsed limply. Even his monstrous appearance briefly reverted toward something human.
“Dog of Selbretina! Man of the whore! The Light God will one day descend upon Earth! He will tear the whore of light to pieces and inflict eternal suffering upon you!”
“Last words noted. Boring ones. Let me tell you something too. No matter what Bramasen tries, I will never lose to him. Earth is my territory. I will protect it.”
Han Harin would never die absurdly the way she had before the regression. Not ever again.
I tightened my grip on the sword and felt the cult leader’s pupils turn red.
The gaze changed.
It was a gaze I had felt once before the regression.
“Bramasen…!! Someday I’ll kill you with my own hands too!!”
—Insolent thing. Do not think this is the end.
A red light flickered in his eyes. A sudden wave of revulsion hit me. I realized he had tried something. He had almost certainly intended to drive me mad with madness itself.
“I really don’t like you.”
I pulled the sword free and cut off the cult leader’s head. I kicked the tumbling head. It smashed against the ceiling and burst. With that, the cult leader was dead.
Rumble! Boom! Screeeech!
The ground shook. The remaining temple began to collapse. With the cult leader gone, this space itself was trying to disappear.
So the cult leader was basically a dungeon core.
I stepped out of the chambers and looked around. As a Hunter I could tell—it would take at least six hours for the place to fully collapse. Plenty of time.
Time to find Harin.
Han Harin was probably dealing with remaining cultists or rescuing the kidnapped people.
I found her easily. She was moving together with Amatsuka Koyori. When Han Harin saw me, her eyes lit up. I was wearing a clown mask, yet she seemed to have recognized me instantly.
There aren’t many men here… and Harin knows my build better than anyone. Can’t be helped.
She knew every inch of my body. She even knew the shape of my asshole better than I did.
Koyori looked at me as well. Dressed in shrine maiden robes and holding a naginata, she stared at me with an oddly intense focus.
“Who are you?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“……I see. Your Japanese is excellent.”
“I’m Japanese. More importantly, shouldn’t we prioritize rescuing the captives?”
“Yes. Rescue comes first.”
Koyori began to move. I did not join them; I stayed apart. No one here could stop Koyori anyway. If I stuck close and my identity slipped, it would only cause trouble.
“…….”
“…….”
I exchanged a look with Han Harin, then headed into the forest.