389. Truth (2)
389. Truth (2)
- 1 -
The Crown Prince Eldgrim, who had taken his seat at the peace agreement as the Empire's representative under the Emperor's command.
Until just moments ago, he had been solely focused on successfully guiding the agreement to minimize the Empire's losses.
But now, none of that mattered. It had become that way.
He doubted his own eyes, again and again.
'...Is this really the truth?'
His mind went blank.
He could no longer tell whether this was reality or a dream.
The Archbishops of the Holy Kingdom.
Those who had symbolized the authority of the Eastern Continent's sole religion for a thousand years were transforming into hideous demons.
"Cassiodorus Mel Valentiano."
Saint Esther called the name of the first Archbishop as she approached him. Her voice was gentle yet firm, brimming with power.
"I-I don't know what you intend to do to me, Saintess! I was wrong...! It was all my foolishness that branded you a heretic! So please... kuhurk!"
Even Holy Arts contained torture techniques.
The brutal art of inflicting pain not on the body but on the soul, primarily used by the Heresy Inquisitors.
Cassiodoro had groveled and begged for forgiveness because he had prematurely assumed that pain would be inflicted upon himself.
But between what he imagined and what was actually about to happen, there was a distance of roughly a million light-years.
Shiiik ——
"Kuheeeek — !"
Pinkish steam flowed from his body like mist.
Simultaneously, his pained groans transformed into inhuman shrieks.
His originally fierce eyes elongated as though slashed with a knife.
Sharp claws sprouted from every knuckle, and sticky membranes grew beneath his arms, forming wings.
An exoskeleton enveloped his jaw, transforming it into a bird-like beak, and black talons tore through his shoes to scrape against the solid marble floor with an unpleasant sound.
His vestments were already torn to rags.
"Hik...!"
"I-Insane... Th-They really are demons!"
"O Lord... Good heavens!"
Before the eyes of the crowd gathered in the plaza, the Eastern Archbishop Cassiodorus transformed into a hideous bird-like demon.
- Kehek...! Wh-What is this...! No, this isn't true...! What have you done to me!! Saintess!! Esther!!
He was in denial. He denied his own state with sincere conviction.
"It was true...!"
"To call the Saintess so disrespectfully! That wicked demon...!"
But the grotesqueness of his already altered voice and his attitude, which no longer held an ounce of respect for the title 'Saintess', only served to further cement the people's certainty.
"Then... the other Archbishops, all of them...?"
The people's gazes, filled with disbelief, shifted to the three remaining Archbishops.
Their worst fears soon became reality.
"Clotilda Mel Monteverde."
"Ah... no. Not me! I said no!"
At Esther's next designation, Clotilda's face contorted as she tried to step back.
But the magical restraints did not permit her the slightest movement.
Hwaak — !
Once again, light arose and seeped into the target.
And the body of the Southern Archbishop, who had once resembled a beautiful mature woman, began to twist.
Her beauty disappeared as though rotting and crumbling away.
A sleek, long tail grew, tearing through the clothes near her hips, and delicate scales like those of a snake sprouted on her face.
Her sides split open as two additional pairs of arms grew out.
The contours of her face were still beautiful, but precisely because of that, the creature standing there was all the more repulsive and alien.
- Ah, no...! This can't be! My beauty!
She screamed, covering her face with her six hands.
"Rodrigo Mel Castillo."
The Western Archbishop, once merely stubborn and conservative, had now joined the radical faction.
Thick, black bristles began to sprout from his red face.
Kwang — !
The shackles could not withstand his thickened arms and shattered.
Twisted muscles. Huge protruding tusks. Sinews like woven rubber.
His originally muscular frame expanded until it was nearly three times its size.
The figure that rose from its seat could only be described as a 'boar demon'.
- Gueoeoeok — !!
"H-He's rampaging!!"
"Run!"
The moment the crowd screamed and recoiled, a streak of black light split the air.
Kwajik — !
"Everyone, please rest assured. No one can run amok in this place."
The source of the flash was Elena, the warrior known as Leoper's Steel Wings.
Before anyone knew it, she had ascended the platform and swung her long spear, precisely piercing the throat of Rodrigo—who had turned into a boar-man—amid his bizarre scream.
- Kkueeeeek — !
Rodrigo survived even with a fatal wound.
The massive body of the 'former' Archbishop thrashed about, impaled on the spear, letting out monstrous shrieks.
Every time he twisted his body, the platform shook as if about to collapse, but the Alliance mages were competent.
For the remainder of the event, the platform did not so much as crack or dent.
"Cornelius Mel Braert."
The last one.
The 'true form' of the Archbishop who had overseen the Holy Kingdom's finances seemed to reveal his greedy nature outright.
- Geueum... give me gooold...
Sticky brown drool dripped from his gaping mouth.
He murmured the same phrase over and over as if his brain had degenerated, and his form resembled that of a giant toad.
Numerous holes pockmarked his once merely obese body.
Rotting pus endlessly oozed from them, a stench that seemed to twist one's nose filled the air, and his greedy murmuring did not cease.
In the end, the mages had to step in and seal away the odor before the event could continue.
"Everyone."
After the four Archbishops had completely transformed into demons, Libertas stepped forward again.
Her eyes scanned the crowd.
"The current Holy Kingdom is in a state where countless individuals have been devoured by the seeds of evil, as you have just witnessed. It is not only the Archbishops. Such beings are mixed among ordinary clergy and believers as well."
At her calm, low words, the people's gazes subtly turned toward the delegation from the Holy Kingdom.
"W-We are not like that! We swear it!"
The clerics who had come as envoys from the Holy Kingdom were horrified and waved their hands in denial.
"Their words are true. Their hearts are pure and free of corruption. Saint Esther will prove that."
When Libertas nodded lightly towards them, relief and gratitude spread across their previously terrified faces.
Libertas smiled slightly.
Those who had come here were originally from the opposition, not Anselm's faction—those who had toiled in the field and criticized the central corruption of the Holy Kingdom.
There was no reason to make them enemies. Unless one intended to 'proselytize', that is.
"Look."
Libertas raised her hand toward the crowd.
From her open palm, black flower petals symbolizing the Alliance began to flutter.
Following that, a beautiful voice filled the plaza.
"Justice will surely prevail. And today, we have prevailed. I hope the representatives of each nation will acknowledge this and press the Holy Kingdom, which has been consumed by those hideous beings, for the truth."
Eldgrim looked around.
The envoy from Rugnisah, the representative from Kakia, the diplomat from Zenota—all were speechless.
Watching them, he unconsciously swallowed dryly.
'This is...'
The fall of the Holy Kingdom was not a matter for just one country.
'The order of the Eastern Continent is collapsing...'
The massive pillar that had supported the continent's order for the past thousand years was being swept away like a sandcastle before his very eyes.
The sanctity of the Holy Kingdom.
It was the moment when even the countless wars and histories of conquest the Empire had waged using that authority as justification would lose their legitimacy entirely.
Philia Elskopf was unfurling a new history across the continent.
"And everyone."
Libertas's next words resounded through the plaza.
"Not all demons and monsters are hostile to humanity. Though those wicked beings incited the Holy Kingdom to attack our Alliance..."
A red carpet lay in the center of the event grounds. Dozens of young children walked across it.
The children held something out toward Libertas. It was a black, elongated object that looked like a tombstone.
She carefully clasped it and placed it upon an altar that had appeared behind her before anyone noticed.
Then, she deeply bowed her head.
"In their attacks, and in our counterattacks, there were heroes who sacrificed themselves to protect the people."
When she turned around again, the people could see.
Those elegant purple eyes, which had not wavered once while watching the Archbishops grotesquely transform, were now stained with deep sorrow.
"'Only a few thousand casualties' from a clash of hundreds of thousands. And at the same time, 'a disaster where thousands died.' You all know the precious lives that did not have to be lost in this war."
Libertas bowed her head and murmured.
"I ask that you observe a moment of silence for those heroes. First, Shale Dun, an ogre from the Kiza Vaisro Forest...."
Libertas began to recite the names of the fallen from the Alliance side, one by one.
It was a long, long time, but the plaza remained solemn, and not a single person stirred restlessly.
Someone had died blocking a ballista, someone else had lost their life pushing a comrade aside, and another had left this world through a senseless accident.
In the face of death, humans and monsters were no different.
"Everyone. Please, pray together."
Libertas's final declaration echoed across the plaza.
"For peace. For tranquility. It is now time for us to move forward together, for a world where we advance side by side."
The corrupted Archbishops writhed, letting out silent monstrous shrieks, but everything was already over.
The authority of the Holy Kingdom crumbled completely with this single revelation, and the legitimacy of the Alliance soared to the ends of the sky.
Silence filled the plaza.
Clap.
What broke that stillness was the sound of a single person clapping.
It soon became a wave.
Clap. Clap. Clapclapclap — !
Soon, the plaza was filled with applause and cheers that shook the heavens.
"For peace!"
"Long live the Alliance!"
Someone howled.
Someone cheered.
And yet another person simply stood there blankly, watching the turning of an era.
The 'truth' that Libertas had created was shining upon this place.
- 2 -
At the same time, in the Holy Kingdom. Anselm's hiding place.
"...Ha, haha...."
Kung — !
Anselm slammed his fist down on the table.
"What in the world is this...?"
A feeble groan leaked out from between his hands covering his face.
He had been watching everything that happened in Hylash through the magically broadcast footage.
But even so, he could not grasp what was happening.
"Surely not, Brother Anselm... Did you truly do all this?"
Chief Inquisitor Sebastian, who was beside him, asked in disbelief.
"...Seeing as you ask that, it seems you know nothing of this either."
"Are you saying you know nothing? Truly?"
The suspicion they directed at each other was understandable.
But they had no time to hesitate in doubt.
A third figure nearby reminded them of that.
"Do you intend to accept their words as they are? Archbishop. And Chief Inquisitor. Right now, the entire world is demanding the truth."
Rodricks Arendel, the Monarch-grade adventurer who had safely brought them to the Holy Kingdom, stared straight at the two men as he spoke.
"I... I did not do it."
His voice was dry and hollow.
"Then, are you saying that was fabricated?"
"...No. It couldn't possibly be a fabrication."
Anselm's pupils shook without focus.
He knew the woman called Esther well.
She was the sort of person who would rather fight the world alone than participate in such a cowardly 'fabrication'.
Then the truth was one.
'Could it be... Could it be me as well?'
Anselm had even begun to suspect himself.
But he did not even have the courage to confirm that suspicion.
Astaroth's encroachment had occurred very secretly, over a long period of time.
So much so that until now, before the soul had completely mutated, even Libertas would have struggled to find proof.
So much so that they themselves could not even recognize that they had changed.
"Damn it...."
"...I see. So there is no answer...."
The despairing Anselm and Sebastian.
In Rodrick's two eyes as he watched them, a sinister pink light began to flicker and swirl.
The color of Duke Astaroth of Obsession.
- 3 -
Just then, as Anselm and Sebastian were at a loss for what to do.
In the deepest part of the Holy Kingdom, in the bedchamber where Anselm had secretly kept the Pope.
... Seuueu...
The finger of the old man who had been waiting for death twitched slightly.
Incredibly minutely, but carrying a clear omen.