Chapter 549: Mixed Fates (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 549: Mixed Fates (3)
Tens of thousands.
No, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
Having awakened her divine power at an early age, she had saved more lives than she could count.
It was rewarding work.
When eyes filled with the despair of imminent death began to overflow with hope.
“Thank you so much, Saintess!”
“I will never forget this for the rest of my life…!”
When they expressed their heartfelt gratitude to her.
She would be overcome with unparalleled happiness.
That was why she had become the Saintess.
To save more people, to spread her influence over a wider area.
However, the noble act of saving lives was not always accompanied by pleasant feelings.
Even for someone like her, there were those she could not save.
Those whose injuries were too old to heal.
Or those who were injured in places her divine power could not reach.
Each time, she was heartbroken.
And she used that feeling as a driving force to train, research, and overcome it.
She fought to prevent the loss and death she had already witnessed from claiming another victim.
And so, she had become incomparably stronger than when she first became the Saintess, able to cure many more illnesses, and yet…
Another insurmountable death now cast its shadow before her.
And it was happening to a precious comrade who had long shared her cause.
“Francis…”
He was special to her in many ways.
A hero who had dedicated himself to world peace even before she had.
The first Apostle she had ever met besides herself.
And the first comrade who had promised to share her cause.
That man was now dying.
“Honestly, I can’t believe it.”
The Guardians were a group formed to protect world peace from the Seven Deadly Sins.
As such, they never entertained the naive thought that they could achieve their goal without the sacrifice of their comrades.
Anyone could die.
So, at the very least, let us not let their noble efforts be in vain.
She had lived with that mindset, but it seemed there had been an exception.
“Thinking about it now, there really wasn’t one.”
She could accept it for others, but not for him.
She had thought that Francis Meyer would always remain by her side.
Why?
“I think I believed in you and relied on you too much.”
This operation was no different.
It was more perilous than any they had undertaken before.
And yet, she had thought…
“I thought that if it was you… if it was Francis Meyer, you would somehow pull through.”
As if to answer that faith, the operation was a success this time as well.
The results exceeded all expectations.
The Apostle of Greed, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, was dead, and the True Ancestor was dead as well.
As a result, the Blood Sanctuary vanished, and the region of Wallachia was returned to Romania.
But the price of that success was also steep.
The Guardians’ raid team and the Vatican Orthodox Church’s Volunteer Group.
Both sides suffered many casualties.
And on top of that, Francis Meyer was in critical condition.
The Saintess squeezed her eyes shut at the sight of him, barely clinging to life with faint breaths.
“I… I’ve driven you to your death.”
She felt it was all her fault.
If only she had prepared more thoroughly.
If only she had forgone the opportunity to build up more strength before starting the operation.
As a storm of regrets swirled in her mind…
Creeak—
The door to the hospital room opened, and a familiar face appeared.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin…”
The man who, along with Francis, had achieved the greatest merit, and at the same time, had been pushed to the brink of death with the most severe injuries.
Her heart, though only slightly, felt a little lighter.
“You’re awake. Thank goodness…”
The Saintess let out a small breath in relief.
If Francis was the pillar that had led the Guardians until now, then he was the pillar of the future.
If something had happened to him as well, she truly wouldn’t have been able to bear it.
He approached and looked down at the hospital bed.
Seeing Francis Meyer sleeping as if dead, he spoke.
“I heard, Saintess. That you’ve… given up on treating him.”
Given up.
The word weighed heavily on her heart. She trembled once before nodding with difficulty.
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that she had given up.
It was simply that, with her abilities, she could not heal Francis as he was now.
Then what, exactly, was the problem?
“His physical injuries weren’t that severe.”
Even in that frantic situation, Kim Do-jin had done his best.
The Saintess had realized this upon seeing the scar that had pierced Francis’s chest.
“The wound was inflicted in a way that avoided all his vital organs.”
His follow-up care had also been perfect.
Thanks to the healing magic of Han Ju-hee and the Volunteer Group, his body could have fully recovered.
However, the problem wasn’t his body, but something else.
“The real problem with Francis… is that a part of his soul was severely damaged.”
“A part of his soul…”
He recalled it.
The final attack Francis had launched to create an opening for him.
That strike had clearly surpassed his limits.
And not just by a little.
He knew well what was required to produce such power.
‘The source of life.’
The Saintess called it a soul, while martial arts novels or the Chinese called it True Origin Energy.
It was, quite literally, the source or the very vessel necessary for a human to live.
Francis must have burned that very thing to gain his power.
She continued.
“There was someone who came to me with a similar injury before.”
“A similar injury…”
“He wished for it to be kept a secret, so I cannot reveal his identity… but like Mr. Francis, he was someone who sacrificed himself to save many people.”
“……”
Kim Do-jin instantly realized who she was talking about.
‘Me.’
To be precise, himself back when he was Son Si-woo.
“He had a severe injury to his mana circuit. And that exists somewhere between the body and the soul.”
It was the same explanation as back then.
“Divine power can heal anything that can be seen, anything that can be touched… but it cannot go beyond that.”
The mana circuit existed, but it was a place that could not be touched or observed.
Therefore, it couldn't be healed with divine power. He had returned in great shock after hearing her say she even doubted whether anything in this world could heal it.
Just as the memories of that day were coming back to him…
“I began researching in secret from that day on.”
“……?”
“I wanted to find a way to heal even the soul with divine power.”
She remembered.
The sight of Son Si-woo’s back as he left, trying his best to look cheerful but endlessly frustrated.
She had found it so pitiful, so unfair.
Why must a hero who steps forward to save everyone be so weary and in so much pain?
Must they willingly bear such hardships and trials simply because they saved many people?
A sense of rebellion flared within her.
‘That can’t be right.’
They had a right to be happy, too.
No, in fact, they deserved to be happier than anyone else.
If not, then who in the world would sacrifice and dedicate themselves for the sake of others?
From that day on, she researched.
A way to expand the influence of divine power to a much wider range.
She made some modest progress.
She became able to heal wounds and illnesses with divine power that were previously incurable.
“But that was all.”
A considerable amount of time had passed, yet her divine power still could not reach the soul.
It was as if a line had been drawn that could not be crossed.
“…Now, I even have thoughts like that. That perhaps God Himself had set these limits.”
“……”
Kim Do-jin couldn’t help but be quite surprised by her words.
Her nuance just now had clearly sounded like she was blaming God.
‘For someone more faithful than anyone to be blaming God…’
It must mean the current situation was that desperate.
Various thoughts began to cross his mind.
If she was this shaken, perhaps he could mold her more to his liking.
“I’m sorry. I’ve shown you a very shaken side of me.”
The Saintess apologized hastily.
She had realized it too late.
With Francis down, if she, too, faltered, it would bring even greater danger to the Guardians.
Kim Do-jin did not miss this opening.
“Saintess.”
“Yes…?”
“You said that divine power alone cannot interfere with the soul.”
“I did.”
“In that case… what if you were to mix divine power with something else?”
“Mix… it?”
Her words might sound blasphemous.
The members of the Orthodox Church perceived divine power as a miracle bestowed upon humanity by God.
That was why, under normal circumstances, he would never have brought it up.
But what about now?
Now, when her desire to save Francis, to surpass the limits of divine power, was so desperate.
“For example, what if you mixed it with the power of another god?”
“……”
She fell silent.
Her head was slightly lowered, seemingly lost in deep thought.
After finishing her thoughts, she lifted her head and asked Kim Do-jin.
“I heard about it, actually. That you showed a new power during the battle…”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Could you tell me? The identity of the power you awakened then.”
He had exposed it to quite a few people.
The fact that he could use an energy different from mana.
Therefore, it could no longer be his secret alone.
That was why Kim Do-jin decided to be a little bolder.
“Saintess.”
“…Yes.”
In the tense atmosphere.
After a moment’s hesitation, Kim Do-jin continued in a low voice.
“I am the new Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins.”
“……!”
A palpable shock swept through the room.