The Demon Who Toys With Hearts
The Pope’s private audience chamber inside Notre Dame Cathedral felt suffocatingly tense.
“So what do you believe the correct course of action is, Ferdinand?”
“The Hero’s journey absolutely requires her presence. Perhaps this time, Sister Angelica should be the one to yield…”
“What?”
Sister Angelica stared at the Pope with a gaze that looked ready to rip him to shreds.
“…It seems the vanguard will no longer be necessary. Hero. Let’s abandon this plan.”
“I refuse. Why are you deciding that on your own, Your Holiness?”
The Hero pressed the Pope with a completely expressionless face.
“Ahem, ahem…”
Fuck. What the hell do these bastards expect me to do?
Ferdinand wanted to tear his hair out. Of course, with how few strands remained on his head, it was only a figure of speech.
In his sixty-four years of life, had there ever been a moment this agonizing? He closed his eyes, postponing any decision.
“What are you doing?”
I was peering into the cathedral through one of its tall windows. No sound reached me from inside, but watching Angelica and the Hero clash was incredibly entertaining. My interest died the moment the Pope dragged the Holy Knights into the mix.
Nothing beats a good fight as a spectator sport, so it was genuinely disappointing.
I had been thrown out of the building by Angelica earlier. Still, the urge to watch their battle was too strong to ignore. After wandering around the cathedral’s exterior, I finally located a suitable window and settled in to observe.
The duel between the Hero and Angelica was genuinely worth watching. I was surprised by how skillfully the Hero wielded a sword. When Angelica triggered her self-destruction, I genuinely thought they had both died. I was shocked. Of course, seeing the Hero emerge completely unscathed afterward left me speechless.
I couldn’t fathom how anyone could walk out of an explosion without a single scratch. The moment it detonated, a thick vapor-like smoke screen had billowed up, blocking my view of the Hero.
After that, well… it turned into this mess.
The Pope’s meddling old-man antics made me sigh. It had been getting so good. Why did he have to butt in and kill the mood? I might have witnessed the Dragon-Slaying Hero in action today. Interfering with a historic moment like that meant the Pope deserved divine punishment from the Lord.
While I was busy grumbling, I spotted an unfamiliar knight sprinting toward the cathedral with a grave expression. Curious about what could make him look so serious, and since I had been planning to head inside anyway, I made my way to the entrance.
“Your Holiness! This is a crisis!”
“And you are?”
“Ah! I am Duncan of the Holy Knight Order!”
“What is your business?”
“Well… we have lost all communication with Commander Julius, who was dispatched to the Erebor Kingdom!”
“There is no need to report something so trivial directly to me. Communication blackouts don’t happen for just a day or two. He is simply too busy to respond.”
I was stunned at the quality of education these knights received. To think they would bring such insignificant information straight to the Pope. The knight remained standing even after finishing his report, so I was about to scold him when he spoke again.
“There is one more matter to report.”
“What is it now?”
“The Erebor Kingdom has been swallowed by a barrier.”
For a second I thought I had misheard. The Pope locked eyes with the knight and asked again.
“What did you just say?”
“Exactly as I stated. It appears a demon has been summoned in Erebor…”
I had not misheard. A demon had truly been summoned. To Ferdinand, the current Pope, the news struck like a bolt from a clear sky. In his entire tenure, a demon had never been summoned. The cardinals had always preemptively sent the Holy Knights or the White Unit to eliminate the threat, or he himself would detect it first and dispatch Commander Julius or the Black Unit to handle the matter.
The last recorded summoning had occurred roughly a hundred years ago, during the reign of the twenty-ninth Pope, Saint Fabian.
Ferdinand was terrified. This incident was large enough to threaten his very position. He had only known demons through legends. Now that one had manifested in reality, he could not even begin to imagine its danger.
According to Vatican records, demons surpassed the realm of Transcendents. One against a hundred. A single demon possessed power equivalent to at least a hundred of the lowest-grade Transcendents.
It might sound so ridiculous as to be unimaginable, yet the Vatican archives did not contain falsehoods. Of course, if they committed the entire Black Unit, Red Unit, White Unit, and all of the Vatican’s military force, they could probably kill it. After all, most of the Red Unit’s Apostles and the Black Unit’s Agents were Transcendents themselves.
If the Pope, cardinals, and archbishops joined them, pouring out holy power while deploying barriers, buffs, and healing, victory should have been assured.
However, that only applied when the demon ranked thirtieth or lower.
The moment a demon crossed into the top twenty, the Vatican would suffer catastrophic, possibly irreparable damage.
Then how had they subjugated such an absurd being a hundred years ago? The answer was simple. The demon summoned at that time had been the sixty-ninth, Dekarabia. Moreover, the summoning had not been complete, making the subjugation easier.
When a demon is summoned, it arrives in spiritual form. Depending on its power, it is granted anywhere from twenty-four to a maximum of two hundred hours for its true body to descend into the mortal realm.
Back then, Dekarabia had been summoned in Sardinia, a small city in the western Albania Kingdom. Fortunately, Pope Saint Fabian had quickly assessed the situation and requested aid from the Adelan Empire. Imperial knights and Vatican forces marched together to subjugate the demon. The Hero, who had already stepped into the Transcendent realm at the time, had also lent his strength. They broke through the barrier and killed it with relative ease.
Records stated that when it was summoned, a black barrier had enveloped the entire city and the sky remained sunless and dark for twenty-four hours.
The current report described the exact same phenomenon.
“Tell me again. Is this report confirmed?”
“Yes, a demon has been summoned. Its rank has not yet been identified. Since the barrier remains in place, we have confirmed it is still in spiritual form. We have also verified that the skies surrounding the Erebor Kingdom have turned completely black, matching the records of Dekarabia.”
At Duncan’s definitive confirmation, the Pope clutched his head and collapsed.
“Your Holiness!”
“Holiness!!”
The surrounding knights fussed and rushed to support him, but Ferdinand was in no state to care.
The real problem was how they were supposed to defeat the demon summoned in Erebor.
While the Pope frowned in distress, a trembling girl’s voice drifted from the cathedral entrance.
“Is that… true?”
“Sirmiia!”
The Hero and Angelica called out at the same time and hurried toward her.
“Move!”
Sirmiia shoved them aside, marched straight up to the knight reporting to the Pope, and demanded, “Is Commander Julius trapped inside Erebor?”
“Who are you? This information is not for outsi—”
“Shut your mouth and answer the question!”
“…Yes. The last confirmed communication came from Libya, the capital of Erebor.”
The moment the knight finished speaking, Sirmiia’s eyes trembled violently. She collapsed to the floor, clutched her head, and let out a piercing scream.
Angelica approached with a pained expression, gently pulled Sirmiia into her arms, and comforted her.
“Sirmiia, it’s all right. Please don’t worry. Julius is classified as an upper-middle-grade Transcendent. He won’t die so easily.”
“What if he’s already dead? You call him your friend, yet you’re not even worried? It’s a demon. I don’t know what rank it is, but it’s still a demon!”
Sirmiia’s eyes were bloodshot red as she shouted.
The Hero, who had arrived late to offer comfort, saw her state and was rendered speechless.
“If the commander went to investigate demon worshippers, he would have clashed with them… If the demon ranks thirtieth or higher, even in spiritual form it could tear someone of Julius’s caliber apart.”
“Julius is going to die…?”
“Yes… he may already be dead…”
'Promise me you’ll forget. Angelica.'
'I don’t want to. I absolutely won’t forget. Yeah. I can never forget. So please… don’t die…'
'…I love you.'
'Cloud? No. Please… I’m begging you… Don’t leave me alone.'
Terrible old memories surged up. Memories I never wanted to recall. Memories I had tried to forget. They tore through my mind without mercy.
I had sworn I would never lose another close friend after that. After Cloud died, Julius had been the only true friend I made.
To regain control of her fracturing mind, Angelica slammed her forehead against the floor.
The horrifying sound made the collapsed Pope flinch and lift his head in alarm.
What the hell is wrong with these crazy women? They’re both losing it at the same time.
“Ow… my head.”
The Pope rose while clutching his skull and issued orders to the knights.
“We must return to the Vatican at once. Contact the Papal Office ahead of us and convene an emergency bishop meeting.”
“Yes, Your Holiness!”
The Pope and the Holy Knight Order quickly departed the lobby.
Now only three people remained: Sirmiia, whose mind had shattered; Angelica, whose mind had shattered in turn; and the Hero, who stood flustered, unsure what to do.
“…We don’t have time to stand around like this, Angelica. I need you to teleport us to the Erebor Kingdom.”
“I can’t…”
“What do you mean you can’t? The commander might be dead right now, and you still want to play these childish games?”
When I raised my voice in anger, Angelica flinched, then shook her head.
“It’s because I lack the mana. Erebor lies at the far western edge, practically touching the northern border. I don’t have enough mana to teleport that distance.”
“What are you talking about, Angelica?! Last time we fought, you teleported over a thousand kilometers and said you hadn’t even used ten percent of your mana—”
“Wait a moment, Sirmiia. What does that mean?”
The Hero stepped between us and cut me off.
Time is running out and you choose now to interrupt?
“You stay out of this. Who asked for your opinion, idiot?”
“…Understood.”